


Turn Left

by hellostarlight20



Series: We Are Never Alone [14]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Daleks - Freeform, F/M, NSFW, Post-Pregnancy, Romance, Season 4 Rewrite, Separate Universes, Ten/Rose smutty fun, Turn Left
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-02
Updated: 2016-04-05
Packaged: 2018-05-04 13:30:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 18
Words: 80,360
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5335844
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hellostarlight20/pseuds/hellostarlight20
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Just how many coincidences can surround the Doctor?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> **What this includes:**  
>  *Rose and the Doctor’s kids, Jenny and Aušra so kid fic in its broadest definition. They’re not the focus of this series, Rose and the Doctor are.  
> *Ten x Rose smut.  
> *Martha and Jack, and mentions of romance and relationships and friendships.  
> *Donna and her evolving life both on and off the TARDIS.  
> *Ten x Rose smut.  
> *Wibbly-Wobbly Timelines. (Anything more and it’ll spoil the story)  
> *What this means is that this is where all the ‘known’ threads from series 4 are combined, shaken and stirred. It also means a lot of the plot points I introduced all the way back in _Daleks, Cannons, Manipulators, Oh My_ and (hopefully) threaded through each subsequent story are wrapped up.
> 
> If you have any questions or concerns, please contact me. I’m always available!

**Prime Universe**  
Rose stared in shock at Donna. Because, seriously, _what were the odds?_

Jenny’s laugh echoed over the ballroom from where she stood with Sarah Jane. Sarah and Jo shared their stories about traveling with the Doctor. Francine cooed over Aušra Susan and glared at Jack whenever he tried to swoop in for special Uncle Jack bonding time.

Rose suspected he did so just to annoy Francine.

Dr. Malcolm Taylor looked like he was in heaven and Captain Magambo watched everyone with a wary eye. The Doctor stood off to the side with Alistair, Martha, and Jack, whenever he wasn’t attempting to swoop in on Francine.

They discussed the remnants of Torchwood in Cardiff, and what to do with the two men who continued to guard the rift in the defunct organization’s name.

Actually, Rose was proud of the Doctor and his restraint when it came to Torchwood. In the week since Aušra Susan’s birth, he hadn’t let either the baby or Rose out of his sight. Except for those two minutes in his past TARDIS where he hovered at the door, peeking in but never interrupting her reunion with his younger self.

But as they walked through the simulated Mutter’s Spiral with pictures of their life plastered over every available wall, Rose thought maybe he rigged the TARDIS to record Aušra’s movements and monitor her happiness level.

She wouldn’t put it past him.

Now, mouth unbecomingly agape at Donna’s introduction, Rose reached through their bond and called him to her side. Not with urgency, she was very careful about that. But she tugged on the silver-blue thread of their bond and tried to focus her mind enough to form words.

Both telepathically and physically, though both proved elusive.

“This is your gramps,” Rose said as she felt the Doctor wind through the crowd. “This is the gramps you tell all those stories about?”

“But I saw you!” Wilfred Mott said excitedly. “You disappeared right in front of me!”

“Doctor,” Rose said without tearing her gaze from Wilf. She tilted her head slightly to one side when he appeared next to her. “Do you remember Mr. Mott?”

“What?” He asked and scratched at his sideburn. “Ah, yes. Christmas. Titanic.” He nodded but even without looking at him, Rose knew he frowned in confusion and concentration.

“I can’t believe it!” Wilf blinked, eyes wide. “Donna you never said!”

“Said _what_?” she demanded. “You met them before?”

“Wilf, sir. Wilfred Mott.” He saluted.

“No.” The Doctor shook his head. “No, no, don’t salute…don’t.”

“You must be one of them aliens,” Wilf continued, unperturbed.

“Ah, yes.” The Doctor shrugged and buried in his hands in pockets. “But we don’t really let that get around. Family only, yeah?”

“And this is what you’ve been doing, Donna?” Wilf beamed, spreading his infectious smile between the three of them. “When you said traveling, I thought you meant to France.”

“Haven’t been to France,” Donna admitted. “Met Agatha Christie, though. And shopped at a hat planet.”

Wilf stared at her then laughed joyously. Rose, still not quite sure what just happened, squeezed the Doctor’s arm. Yes, they met Wilf on Christmas Eve on a deserted street. Yes, they beamed up right in front of him.

All facts.

But seriously, the coincidence was outlandish. First Donna’s seemingly accidental parking right in that alleyway where they parked the TARDIS and now Wilf turned out to be her grandfather? (Or was the sequence of events the other way around? Wilf first, then Donna? No, no…Donna came first…that other Christmas, the one when Rose was still trapped in the other universe…So Donna, Wilf, Donna…)

A headache started to pound behind her eyes. Rose rubbed her temple. She didn’t like coincidences. Never believed in them before she traveled with the Doctor and certainly didn’t like them now.

Coincidences usually meant someone planned a very specific event. And not of the happy surprise kind. Usually it involved death and destruction.

“Would you like to meet Aušra Susan?” she asked in lieu of anything else to say on the subject of coincides and Christmas trips and…well, aliens.

“Donna’s told me about the little one,” Wilf said, all sparkling eyes and giddiness. “I’d love to meet her.”

“And Jenny,” Donna added with a grin. A wide, happy smile softened her eyes and brought out the Donna Rose knew and loved.

“Yes,” the Doctor said and scanned the room for their eldest. “Jenny.”

He didn’t say her name any louder than necessary, but Jenny looked up as if he shouted across the room. Rose wondered how the telepathic training went. Neither said anything, but then it was intense. Though she didn’t think Jenny was quite to the part where the Doctor could speak directly into her mind yet.

Then again, Jenny was (mostly) Time Lord. It probably worked differently with her than with Rose.

A stab of longing and sorrow pierced her happy bubble. The Doctor immediately looked down at her and she felt his concern as clearly as if he spoke it. She wanted that with him. Wanted the intimacy of full telepathic communication. And with her children, both of them—all of them.

She breathed deeply and shook her head just as Jenny joined them. She carried Aušra Susan with her as if she knew Rose wanted to show both her daughters to Wilf. She probably did know.

Starting tomorrow, no matter how sore or tired she felt, no matter what sort of wild tango her emotions did, she’d start forging a telepathic connection with Jenny. She didn’t want to waste another moment.

“Jenny,” the Doctor introduced with a nod. “This is Wilf, Donna’s granddad. Wilf, this is Jenny Donna and Aušra Susan.”

Wilf shook hands with Jenny and cooed over the baby. Aušra watched him in wide-eyed fascination, blinking solemnly as Wilf tickled under her chin and told her what a beautiful little girl she was.

“You all right?” the Doctor asked.

He turned his body just enough to shield her from the rest of the party but not enough to draw attention. His fingers ran over her blue long-sleeved shirt and slipped beneath the cuffs to caress her inner wrist. But his eyes focused solely on her, penetrating whatever lie she might’ve once thought to tell.

“Yeah,” Rose sighed. Then cleared her throat. It wasn’t a total lie. 

He gave her a disbelieving look. “Rose, that was about as convincing as…well, _nothing_. What’s wrong?”

“You got Jenny’s attention with your link to her, didn’t you?” It was more statement than question. Rose already knew the answer. But the Doctor nodded anyway. “And you think I can have that with her, too? With Aušra?”

“Yes.” He scratched the back of his neck. “Maybe a deeper bond with Aušra Susan than with Jenny, because physically Jenny’s brain is far more developed. But yes. Should do.”

“Can we start tomorrow?”

He blinked. “Course.” The Doctor squeezed her hand. “What’s really wrong?”

Rose shook her head. Not here, not now. She’d tell him tonight or tomorrow or next week, but she refused to interrupt a party Jenny planned, _for her_ , with her pathetic insecurities.

“It’ll wait.”

He nodded, a slow movement that Rose knew he only did to appease her. He’d ask again as soon as the party wound down.

“Mum?”

Rose turned to see Jenny easily holding Aušra Susan. Her blue eyes watched Rose intently, and she smiled reassuringly at her daughter. She didn’t want Jenny worried. Not about this. Suddenly Jenny paled.

Before Rose had the chance to do more than register Jenny’s paleness, to mentally gasp in alarm, to step forward, the Doctor moved.

“Jenny?” Donna demanded.

Beside her, Wilf worried as well. “Is she all right?”

“Jenny?” the Doctor called.

He passed Aušra to her and Rose shifted the now-crying baby to one arm, her other hand cradling the back of Aušra’s head as she bounced her. The crying only intensified.

“Dad?” Jenny whispered.

Her fingers covered her chest. Right where Cobb’s bullet pierced her flesh. Rose paled. Donna moved beside her, wrapped an arm around her shoulders even as she sank to the floor beside her daughter. Breath caught, Donna tried to comfort her.

Donna recognized the move as well.

“Do you hear that?” Jenny asked. “The buzzing?”

Her already pale face whitened more and she sank in the Doctor’s arms. Martha was there, crouching beside the Doctor. Her fingers frantically moved over Jenny’s throat, her wrists. Jack appeared from nowhere with Martha’s med kit.

“What’s wrong?” Rose demanded. “Doctor?”

“Jenny?” he repeated, frantic now. “ _Jenny?_ What’s happened? What’s the matter?”

“The buzzing,” Jenny croaked out. Her tongue moistened her lips and her gaze darted between the Doctor and Rose. “It’s everywhere. Hissing. I can’t make out the words.”

“Is it the man?”

Rose looked down to where Keisha stood. She somehow slipped around everyone and curled on Jenny’s lap. Her little hands wound around Jenny’s neck and she hugged tight.

“Is it the man you saved us?” Keisha asked. “Does he make-ed the world buzz?”

“What’s she talking about?” Shonara demanded, clearly terrified.

Rose shook her head. Eyes wide, fear clutching her heart, she carefully removed Jenny’s hand from where it covered her now-healed wound and clasped it tightly. She licked her lips and had to swallow twice before she trusted herself enough to speak.

“Keisha, can you hear it, too?” Rose asked softly. It hurt to keep her voice so low, so level, but Jenny was terrified already and Rose didn’t want to add to that terror. To her own. “Can you hear the buzzing Jenny does?”

Keisha slowly nodded and buried her face in Jenny’s neck. She didn’t cry, only held Jenny tighter as if the sheer will of a four year old was enough to ward off whatever it was only the two of them heard.

“What does it sound like?” the Doctor asked, words as soft as a breeze as he clutched their eldest child against him.

“Like when Gran doesn’t hang-ed up the house phone,” Keisha mumbled.

Then Jenny breathed deeply and blinked. Still pale, she struggled to sit up again. Her arms wrapped around Keisha and she held the girl to her for a long, quiet moment.

“What is going on?” Shonara demanded in the absolute silence of the crowded room.

“It’s okay, mummy.” Keisha looked up from Jenny’s embrace and grinned widely. “The bad man not here.”

Shonara turned her dark eyes to Rose who could only shake her head. She looked at the Doctor, who moved only to sit on the floor.

He ran a tired hand down his face and through his hair, ruffling it hard as he did whenever his mind raced and he had no answers. His eyes looked inward, searching, Rose knew, for whatever Jenny and Keisha felt-heard-saw.

“Doctor?”

“She’s not in danger,” he promised, the words ringing with truth. “I promise you, Shonara. Keisha’s a special little girl.” He tried to smile but his dark eyes remained haunted. “But I promise you,” he repeated, the words a harsher vow now. “She’s in _no_ danger.”

Slowly, Shonara nodded. Beside her, Rose watched Leo sag with relief. Keisha stood from Jenny and ran off, back to where Winston and K9 waited for her on the opposite side of the room. Wilf, bless his heart, turned to Francine with his wide grin and offered his arm.

“Wilf Mott, ma’am” he said to her as he led Francine away. “I believe you’re Grandma Francine?”

Slowly, the rest of the party returned to where they were, what they were talking about. But they all knew it wasn’t over. They knew the Doctor. They knew there was no such thing as coincidence. The party resumed, conversation picked up where it left off, but Rose sensed a hyperawareness in the air.

“Jenny?” Rose asked and ran a hand down Jenny’s hair. Let it linger on her shoulder. “All right, love?”

Slowly her daughter nodded. Swallowed hard. The Doctor helped her stand, and while Jenny still looked unnaturally pale, her blue-grey eyes burned with determination.

“What did you see?” the Doctor asked.

It was just the four of them. Donna wandered off with her gramps, and Jack and Martha turned to reassure the rest of the guests nothing was wrong. Or reassure them as best as possible.

“I didn’t see anything,” Jenny started slowly. “Not like when I knew Cobb was going to shoot. Then I knew. I _knew_ he was going to raise his gun and shoot Mum. In my head, I saw him do it and moved before he could.”

Rose felt her world tilt. That was Jenny’s Time Sense, the Doctor said. It wasn’t fully developed, given the way she was born, but Jenny possessed it same as any other Time Lord. Except…except maybe she saw things differently than the Doctor.

Jenny shook her head, one hand pressed to her eyes. She hadn’t realized until Jenny spoke that her daughter jumped in front of her _before_ Cobb raised his gun. Mouth suddenly dry, Rose held Aušra tighter. Gripped Jenny’s should, afraid to let go of either child.

The baby stopped crying but continued to sniffle and squirm. Whatever happened, she hadn’t understood and it terrified her. Rose pressed her lips to the top of Aušra’s head, her temple. Faint though the thread between them might be, she gently caressed the pale fiber connecting her with her daughter.

“Shh,” Rose said aloud and through their bond. “It’s all right, love.”

“What was it like?” the Doctor asked, voice hushed yet urgent.

“An echo,” Jenny said quietly, eyes watching the swirling floor of the Mutter’s Spiral. “A wave, maybe.”

“But you heard something.” Rose managed around the lump of fear clogging her throat.

Jenny nodded and raised her eyes. For the first time since she stepped from that machine, Rose saw the same alien-ness, the same Time Lord-ness she sometimes saw in the Doctor when he was especially angry or especially focused.

“It wasn’t clear,” Jenny whispered. “Buzzing and noise, I can’t explain it. I don’t know what little Keisha meant when she said it sounded like a phone not hung up.”

“Any voices?” the Doctor demanded, but he looked frightened— drained and frightened and concerned. And that same swirl, galaxies born and dying, eddied through his gaze.

Tilting her head, Jenny closed her eyes and frowned. “Maybe. I can’t hear anything, not specifically. It’s all overlapping. Doesn’t make sense.”

He frowned and met Rose’s gaze. He loved a good mystery, but not when it endangered his family.

“I hear you, Dad, shouting for someone and you’re so angry. And then a voice, and I know it’s you but not this you, and you’re pleading.” Jenny shook her head and breathed deeply. “I hear other voices, too. Some words make sense, most don’t.”

“We’ll figure it out, Jenny,” he promised.

Unfortunately, Rose knew it was a promise he made because he didn’t know what else to say. Didn’t know how to fix this—whatever this was—for his daughter.

“Let’s get back to the party,” Rose suggested. She tore her gaze from the Doctor’s and looked critically at Jenny. “Are you sure you’re all right?”

Jenny beamed and kissed her cheek. “Fine, Mum. Don’t worry about me.”

Rose heard her own mum’s voice. _“I’ll always worry about you, Rose. You’re my daughter.”_

Well then.

Rose watched Jenny walk into the crowd. The Doctor gathered her close, infinitely gentle with Aušra, and pressed his lips to her forehead. He held her for a long, intimate minute as if they weren’t surrounded by the watchful eyes of their family.

All of whom really did know better than to ignore an incident like this with or without the Doctor around.

“I’ll figure it out, Rose. I promise.”

 ********  
Two days after the party, the Doctor and Rose sat in their gardens. The TARDIS remained parked in front of Francine’s, Martha and Jack returned to UNIT, Donna and Shonara continued their interviews for the spa, and life, it seemed, returned to normal.

Jenny and Aušra Susan spent sisterly bonding time together and they waited for them to return. After Jenny’s daily TARDIS flying lesson, it was Rose’s first lesson in telepathically bonding with their eldest. The Doctor pressed a kiss to her shoulder and tightened his arms around her waist.

He settled against the back of the lounge chair, the sun high overhead, a hint of breeze through the air. Rose hummed in contentment. That was all the sound he needed. It continued to amaze him how his life changed since meeting her. Still changed.

They had two beautiful girls. The TARDIS’s growth projections about Her own offspring accelerated once Jenny arrived. The Doctor did not like that one bit—taking away his daughter just when he found her.

He hadn’t told Rose that part yet. Or Jenny. His mind whirled with questions—too many. Who or what had Jenny heard? Why did the Time Ripples affect her, and Keisha, so badly? Did they also affect Aušra Susan as well? His unshielded, unprotected youngest.

At this moment, Rose in his arms, his children deeper in the gardens, he was at peace. Mostly. He didn’t think Aušra Susan was in any immediate danger and Jenny seemed to handle the Ripples well enough.

“How long do you want to stay here?” The Doctor asked.

The words drifted between them, lazy and unnecessary. He knew what she wanted, but as with everything about Rose, the Doctor needed to double check. Make sure. Not because he feared her answer.

Because he still couldn’t believe this wonderful, loving, giving woman chose him. Chose a life with him. Offered her future to him.

Rose shifted against him, twined their fingers together over her stomach. She shifted again, grunted a little in mild discomfort and returned her head to his shoulder. It was a discussion they had many times since her return. Since becoming such good friends with Martha and by extension her family.

As always, she remained torn. The Doctor didn’t need to hear her thoughts or see her face or wait for her verbal reply. He knew. He always knew.

“Do you still think it’s better to stay out of their timeline?” Rose asked, the words an unadorned whisper. Bare and open and her heart laid out for him to see. “Just come back for a visit?”

He hesitated, but his arms tightened around her. “It’s up to you, Rose.” The words sounded neutral. They both knew better.

“Another couple of months, at least. I’m not up for running—”

“No.” He cut in swiftly.

The image of her struggling on Messaline, of him carrying her because she couldn’t run from gun-toting fools, of the icy terror that gripped his hearts had not lessened. The Doctor doubted it ever would.

“No,” he repeated, softer. “I want you entirely healed before any of that.”

Rose turned slightly and kissed his jaw. “I don’t know, Doctor.”

He didn’t either. Before he gathered his thoughts enough to try to explain, to use words for emotions that weren’t meant to be expressed in words, Jenny returned.

“I think this little one is hungry.” She bounced a fussy Aušra Susan confidently in her arms, grin wide, eyes sparkling.

Rose shifted up and reached for Aušra Susan, already opening her blouse. Well, his shirt. She’d taken to wearing his shirts since the birth. Excepting, of course, the party two days ago. The Doctor frowned and ran a hand over his face.

Nothing could punch through his TARDIS’s shields. Nothing around any longer that was. But if Jenny—and Keisha and Aušra Susan—heard echoes, that meant the Time Ripples worsened.

And he didn’t know what to do about them. How to stop them or outrun them or fix them. Nothing. He didn’t know _anything_.

When it was only them, he and Rose and Martha and Jack, the Doctor figured they’d correct themselves. Eventually they’d either stop because they caught up to wherever the change originate or the timelines would merge or change enough to stop them naturally.

Now with his children involved, he didn’t know what to do. And it terrified him straight through to his soul.

“Isn’t it time for your lesson?” Rose asked a she settled Aušra Susan at her breast.

“Yup!” Jenny said with that same sunny smile.

How had he got so lucky? Seriously, his karma wasn’t good enough to grant him not only Rose and Aušra Susan, but Jenny, miracle daughter that she was.

Jenny leaned over to kiss Rose on the cheek, her fingers brushing over Aušra Susan’s head. Then she bounded up and looked expectantly at him. Something tickled the back of his mind, but Rose tilted her head up for his kiss and then Jenny pulled him from the gardens.

“Jenny—what?” he sputtered.

“What’s wrong?” she demanded as they walked down the corridor toward the console room. “You’ve been grumpy since the party.” She hesitated and asked timidly, “Did you not like it?”

“Oh, no.” He stopped and grinned widely at her. “It was brilliant, Jenny. So very brilliant.”

She beamed at him then frowned again. “Then it was what happened with Keisha. And that strange noise.”

He nodded, not exactly sure how to articulate all he should. He promised Rose honesty with their children. Aušra Susan couldn’t even talk yet; he should’ve had plenty more time to work on his honesty—on not keeping secrets. Yes, he thought he’d have loads more time to work on that whole honesty thing. On saying things he meant to a being other than Rose.

It wasn’t as easy as his promise sounded.

“Your mother,” he began and decided he’d never tire of using those words. _Your mother._ Perfect. He cleared his throat, tongue tracing the back of his teeth as they entered the console room.

What was he saying? Oh. Yes. _Rose._

“Your mother wants to stay in Earth’s timeline,” he said, each word carefully chosen.

Honesty was _hard._

“And you don’t want to?” Jenny tilted her head and watched him carefully.

“Jenny.” He sighed. “Humans age. We don’t. Well,” he amended, “we do. But not like them, not as quickly. No matter how you came about, you’re still a Time Lord.”

“Time Lady,” she interrupted.

The Doctor flashed her a quick grin and nodded absently. “Time Ladies, and Lords, live for a long, long time. Much longer than Martha or Donna or Francine.”

“Or Mum,” she whispered.

Jenny watched him silently for several heartsbeats. Blue-grey eyes studying him carefully, and he all but felt her mind race with the implications. With outliving her family and everyone she held dear. Everyone except him and Aušra Susan.

He hadn’t told her that yet. Didn’t like talking about it. Really didn’t like talking about it. Really, really… About death and aging. (Wither and die) And Rose…

The Doctor swallowed hard.

“But you said they’re family.” Jenny frowned. “You told me those people were family. I looked it up. Asked Aunt Donna and Grandma Francine about it. The both agreed. Said the family you keep is the family you want in your life.”

He nodded, a long slow movement. “Yes. Yes, that’s true.”

“And we want them as our family. Right, Dad?”

Again he gave her the long, slow now and spoke with equal slowly. “Yes.”

“Then what’s the question? We don’t run from family.”

He let out a breath, a faint, startled laugh. “Jenny, you’re brilliant. Well of course you are. You’re my daughter.”

“So…does that mean we’re staying in their timeline?” she asked.

“For a bit,” he agreed. “Yes. We’ll stay here.”

She beamed at him again and took her place at the TARDIS controls. “Now then. Quick hop to get Mum chips from her favorite place?”

“Oh, yes!”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Toes back in the water.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Contains mentions of postpartum depression

**Prime Universe**  
Six months since Aušra Susan’s birth and Rose finally felt like herself. Aušra slept longer, fed regularly, and there were plenty of Time People about to see to her needs while _Rose_ slept. Aušra didn’t sleep as long as Rose’s human baby books suggested. But then, she was only half human. 

Genetically speaking, closer to 15-20%. Give or take.

And Rose was fine with that. Right up until she was not. But then she wasn’t all right with a lot of things these last months. Postpartum depression. She read about it, in addition to the finer points of breastfeeding and how to get your child to sleep through the night.

Rose had honestly never thought it’d affect her. She was wrong. Nearly three weeks after Aušra Susan came into this world, Rose lost interest. She didn’t want to bond with Jenny or see the outside of their bedroom or spend the day with Martha or Donna.

She hadn’t cared about the spa or UNIT or talking with Sarah Jane. Nothing. Vicious circle that it was, the more she dwelled on it, the more she knew she was a bad mother, and the worse she felt.

Jenny tried, bless her hearts. She sat with Rose and talked with her, made sure to bake Rose’s favorite cookies or bring her hot, crispy chips. But the more Jenny helped, the worse Rose felt. Because she should be the one to bake Jenny’s favorite and to take care of Jenny, not the other way around.

Her worst fears come to life—she was a lousy mum.

Francine helped. A lot. She understood in a way the Doctor could never despite how he listened and talked to her. Reassured her. But Francine experienced postpartum depression after Leo’s birth and supported Rose so fully, it still brought tears to her eyes.

“How are you feeling?” the Doctor asked softly as she stepped from the shower.

He hadn’t dragged her into their en suite to bathe since that first time—a week after their trip to the past TARDIS. But he did monitor her. Monitored her food intake, her sleep, her hormone levels…pretty much everything about her body and mind. 

Then again, Rose thought he always had.

Now, wrapped in a long, silky robe, and feeling a rush of desire, Rose wound her arms around his neck and pressed her lips to his. She sighed at the touch, the feel of him through their bond, against her body.

“Like me again,” she whispered against his mouth.

He studied her for a long, silent moment. Rose waited. He’d asked the same question every day. And every day since she began to take notice of the world, Rose answered the same. Each day a little more confident, a little more herself.

“Are you sure you’re ready to go out?” he asked.

His hands settled on her hips, fingers grazing along the small of her back, her arse. Rose shivered and arched into him, humming slightly. The Doctor’s mouth brushed over her jaw, his nose buried in her hair and he simply held her.

As he had every day, every night, for months. Held her and talked to her and most importantly listened to her.

She joked, now, that it was the longest he ever kept silent. But him listening helped so very much. And sharing. Over the near year of her pregnancy Rose told him of her fears for being a lousy mum.

In the time since Aušra’s birth, she and the Doctor actually talked about those fears. Fears and plans and so much else—disciplinary measures, teaching, socialization. All of it. Issues they probably should’ve talked over before her pregnancy, but never had.

Aušra snuffled from her bassinet and Rose turned to her beautiful baby. Scooping her up, she felt the Doctor step behind her, his arms a solid comfort around her waist. His chin rested on her shoulder and she felt him exhale deeply.

“I’m sorry I scared you,” she whispered to both baby and husband.

“I worried,” he admitted. As he had each time they talked. “I always worry for you, Rose.”

He trailed off and she waited. He listened to her these last months. The least she could do was wait for him to gather his thoughts. Resting her head on his shoulder, she trailed a hand down Aušra’s cheek, let the girl gnaw and slobber on her index finger.

“I can’t lose you,” he confessed. The words ripped from his very soul.

Rose caught her breath and turned in his arms. She cradled Aušra, who switched to gnawing on Rose’s shoulder, and lifted her free hand to his face. She wanted to reassure him, but words sounded hollow.

“I thought I had.” Each word he spoke felt like a jagged cut along her skin. “I thought I lost you and it terrified me. Our bond felt so…so fragile. You barely looked at me for weeks. I didn’t know what to do.”

His forehead touched hers and his breath caught on a frayed sob. “God, I didn’t know what to do.” 

“You did everything right,” she promised. Voice choked with tears, Rose swallowed hard. “Doctor, my Doctor, you did nothing wrong. It wasn’t for you to fix.”

Francine taught her that. Postpartum depression wasn’t _fixable_ in the traditional _fixing_ sense; they had to work through it. Together. And they had.

“I can’t lose you, Rose. My hearts.”

“Doctor,” she breathed. “I’ll always be with you.”

His hand cupped the back of Aušra’s head and he pulled her closer. His kiss was desperate and frantic, taking more and promising all in one touch. She kissed him back, body awake and alive, and sighed into him.

“Aušra Susan is entirely too young to see her parents like this.”

Rose pulled back, her soft smile transforming into a wider grin. Jenny leaned against the bedroom door, arms folded, head cocked. Her blue eyes were bright and amused, but over their still-hazy bond, Rose sensed her daughter’s worry.

“Jenny,” Rose laughed but dutifully stepped away from the Doctor. She turned fully to face her eldest. “Are you ready then?”

Aušra giggled and reached for Jenny, stretching her small body toward her big sister. Unlike before, Rose felt no envy. They were sisters and shared a bond she only faintly understood. It was a bond Rose wanted them to have so she hadn’t known why she begrudged it.

She still didn’t, but no longer felt that clawing, cloying envy.

“For our family trip?” Jenny crossed the room and kissed Rose’s cheek. “Always am. Though I don’t think I want to go to Apalapucia.”

Jenny frowned and shook her head. She took Aušra and let her sister tangle slobbery hands in her hair. Though her words were bright and sunny, Rose felt her concern. The worry lingered, that faint uncertainty.

“No?” Rose whispered, searching Jenny’s blue gaze. “All right. You pick then. Anywhere. Your choice.”

“Why not Apalapucia?” the Doctor asked with a frown. “It’s a top holiday destination! All the guidebooks recommend it!”

Jenny slowly shook her head. “Bad feeling,” she muttered.

Rose hesitated. The Doctor told her about Jenny’s telepathic training, the ease with which her Time Lady senses opened once they started. He also told her how the Time Ripples affected Jenny and the glimpses she had of these altered timelines.

“Where to, then?” Rose asked and obediently took Aušra back when she stretched out again.

She bounced the baby until she giggled and clapped her hands on Rose’s cheeks. Rose laughed back and blew gently into Aušra’s neck, tickling the girl who giggled again. The sound, so loud and joyous and unencumbered, warmed Rose’s heart.

“How about the Rings of Akhaten?” Jenny suggested instead.

“Oh!” The Doctor nodded, but his hand hadn’t left Rose—caressed down her spine, over her hip, brushed her shorter hair off her cheek. “We can watch the Festival of Offerings! With the Sun Singers of Akhet.”

He quieted and stilled, unnaturally so. “I haven’t been there since…Susan…”

She took his hand, automatically seeking out their bond to comfort him. Even now he rarely talked of Susan. Rose knew precious little of his first grandchild—of any of his fully Time Lord family. But the admission, the simple fact he spoke of Susan in front of Jenny, eased her concern for him.

He looked up and smiled, a small, soft upturn of his lips. Through their bond, so gloriously alive and strong once more, he held her, kissed her lightly. Since becoming pregnant, Rose felt the Doctor far stronger than before. Baring these last months, at least. And she desperately wanted their deeper bond to continue.

The intimacy of it settled within her soul like a missing piece.

_I’m fine_ he said with the kiss, with the lingering emotion over their bond. _I’ll always miss her, all of them, but I’m…good._

She mostly believed him.

“Sure,” Rose agreed, and tore her gaze from the Doctor to watch Jenny carefully. But Jenny purposefully shook off whatever weighed on her, a very Doctor move Rose didn’t like one bit, and took Aušra.

“I’ll change and dress her,” Jenny promised with her bright smile. “You get dressed, Mum.”

She stopped at the door and looked over her shoulder. Her blue-grey eyes searched Rose, but Jenny seemed satisfied with what she saw and nodded. “I expect you both in the console room within the half hour!”

Without waiting for an answer, she exited. Rose giggled and turned to the Doctor who watched the now closed door mouth agape, face a lovely shade of pink.

“She’s spent too much time with Jack,” he muttered.

“Yes,” she whispered, a pang of guilt once more making its way around her heart and squeezing. “Too much time at UNIT.”

“It’s not your fault,” he promised. His fingers slid down her arms, clasped hers. “It’s not anyone’s fault.”

“Maybe not,” Rose agreed, but pulled him close. Slipped her fingers under his jacket and pressed her lips to his shoulder. “But I have a lot of time to make up for. A lot of mother-daughter bonding.”

She pulled back and kissed him. One hand brushed through his hair, scraped along the nape of his neck, the other grabbed his tie and tugged.

“We’ll make every moment count,” the Doctor breathed against her lips.

Thirty minutes was not nearly enough time to explore her lovely skin and addicting warmth and let her pleasure play out along his senses until she exploded around him. They didn’t make Jenny’s deadline--it wasn’t the first time. It wouldn’t be the last.

Then, and only then, when she lay boneless and sated beneath him, did he let her dress.

With one final, “I love you, my hearts,” he retreated to find their children.

With that promise, Rose finished dressing and they landed on Akhaten. Jenny wandered off, they rescued a little girl, and naturally, the three (four) of them fought the pyramid monster. And won.

********  
Rose sat on the floor in their yoga room. She’d returned to her daily routine, though neither Martha nor Donna joined her any more. They had their own lives outside the TARDIS. Martha with UNIT and Donna with the spa.

And possibly one of the construction workers she hired to work on gutting an old UNIT building for their spa location.

Today Rose didn’t do her normal stretches. Today she sat opposite Jenny and stretched her mind out to her daughter. On the fringes of her conscious, like the faintest brush from a gentle breeze, she felt the bright light of her daughter.

Rose didn’t reach for that thread, rather focused on it. On the texture of Jenny’s hands in hers, on her own breathing. On the feel of Jenny’s deep purple thread—expanding it, growing it between them.

_“It’ll never be as strong as our bond,”_ the Doctor’s voice whispered against her senses. _“But you’ll always be able to feel her. No matter where you are or what time you’re in.”_

Rose plucked the expanding purple thread and held it, cradled it as she did Aušra, as she never had the chance to do with Jenny. In measured, unhurried syllables, she sounded out Jenny’s name.

_Jenny Donna Tyler_

Never Jennifer, always Jenny.

The purple thread solidified in her mental grasp. Moved, shifted, wrapped itself over her own mental thread. Entwined there as well. Not like the Doctor’s blue-silver thread, never as deep or interwoven as that.

The bond of a child, always there.

Rose felt-heard-sensed Jenny’s gasp and suddenly there she was. She felt her daughter open to her in a way previously closed off and out of reach. The low buzz of life-happiness-curiosity-belonging.

“Mum.”

The word echoed through all of her senses and Rose’s eyes snapped open. She met Jenny’s surprised blue-grey gaze and laughed. At first she didn’t know if she laughed aloud or they were still in their dream-state.

But then the sound echoed around them and Rose breathed deeply and the world righted.

“That felt amazing,” Jenny gasped. “I mean Dad and I have practiced, but even once we connected, it never felt like this.”

“Maybe it’s because I’m your mum,” Rose offered. 

She struggled off the floor, limbs gelatinous though she hadn’t done more than a few poses before she and Jenny began. Rose felt drained and exhilarated, ready to nap and able to run a marathon.

“Or maybe it’s because I’m human,” she amended with a contemplative frown.

“I think it’s because you’re my mum,” Jenny said shyly. She tucked her head into her shoulder and grinned up at Rose. “I like that explanation better.”

Rose breathed a laugh. “Me, too, love.”

She smiled at Jenny, so very pleased to finally have this connection with her. Then Jenny laughed and broke the spell. Or maybe wrapped it tighter around them. Family.

Rose stretched her hands high over her head and breathed deeply. “What time is it? How long were we here?”

“Three hours, seven minutes,” Jenny answered automatically.

“Three hours?” Rose grimaced. A week of three hour telepathic sessions. “No wonder I’m sore. And your father was feeding Aušra her first banana today.”

Jenny huffed. “I wanted to see that. It promises to be very mess and Aunt Donna wanted pictures of Dad with mashed banana over his suit.”

Rose snickered. “Don’t worry. I’m sure the TARDIS recorded it all.”

The TARDIS recorded a lot of things lately. Well, more than lately. Since the wedding, Rose thought. Whatever She and Jack fixed up to record that day seemed to have stuck.

Every major moment—and some not so lovely like Rose’s hours of labor—all found their way into the TARDIS’s archives in video and print. Rose eyed the soaring coral, the evenly spaced roundels.

Why hadn’t she thought of that before?

She and the TARDIS were going to have to coordinate here.

Even during the months of depression and tears, Rose continued to write her letters to the Doctor. Even though some only said _I’m sorry. I love you_ she continued to write. Life wasn’t only about the happy moments—the Doctor reminded her of that.

They lined up neatly in her boxes, waiting for him to someday read.

Now, as she and Jenny exited the yoga room, Rose wondered how to access the movies the TARDIS recorded. Far, far in the future, when the Doctor needed a reminder of their life and happiness and every single moment they shared, Rose wanted him to watch those moments captured by the very brilliant TARDIS.

Watch and remember.

********  
“I’ll watch Aušra,” Jenny volunteered as she stepped through the nursery doors.

The Doctor eyed her. They were on the balcony which overlooked the Mountains of Solace and Solitude of Gallifrey. The sun shone down on the planes before the mountains, and a light breeze picked up Jenny’s hair and sent the blonde locks dancing in the wind. She looked far more a lady of the early 21st century than she did a created soldier born to fight.

She looked like Rose’s daughter.

A smile tugged the corners of his lips as he looked at his children. Maybe Rose had been right. Maybe his misgivings about staying in this linear time were wrong. He still didn’t know and wasn’t sure there was a definitive answer.

Today Rose dutifully toured the UNIT spa—which didn’t yet have a name—with Donna and Shonara. But she promised to return after she lunched with Malcolm (who was half in love with her and no one could tell the Doctor otherwise) and Erisa Magambo. (Who was not half in love with her, the Doctor admitted) and if the Doctor’s Time Sense was right (it always was) lunch was long since finished.

“Watch Aušra Susan do what?” he asked, not certain what he felt from his daughter.

But Jenny very firmly closed the door to her thoughts. She grinned widely and picked Aušra Susan off the blanket she tried to crawl around. And by crawl it was more of a rocking-rolling motif of uncoordinated limbs.

The baby giggled and tangled her fingers in Jenny’s hair babbling away at a considerable, and impressive, rate.

“No, not yet,” she said to the baby.

“You can understand her? The Doctor asked. He, of course, understood some of Aušra Susan’s feelings, but not quite her baby babblings. 

Jenny hummed happily and shrugged. But she looked innocent enough. The Doctor knew that look. He’d seen it far too many times on Rose to be fooled.

“You and Mum need to get away,” Jenny announced. She settled Aušra Susan on her hip and let the baby gnaw on her shoulder. “Just the two of you.”

Torn between longing for just that and a fierce need to protect Rose and keep his new family safe, the Doctor shook his head.

“Your Mum needs to stay here,” he said.

“Dad,” Jenny said seriously. “You and Mum need to get away. It’ll do her good. Just a couple days, maybe a week. We’ll be fine. I’ll stay with Grandma Francine.”

“Francine just wants more time with Aušra Susan,” he grumbled.

He only half heard his own words. Burying his hands in his pockets, the Doctor studied Jenny and Aušra Susan who looked at him with his own serious brown eyes.

Would a trip do them good? Well, yes. He wanted his wife, just for a day. All right—he never want to share her. Just the two of them? Yes, he wanted to hold Rose’s hand and run with her along the streets. Or laugh with her in the rain.

The last months had been so hard on them, and though they’d worked through her depression and fear of being a bad mother, and his own terror of losing her, the Doctor wanted more. It clawed through him with a desperate hunger he tried to ignore.

“All right,” he heard himself saying.

And after all Francine had done for Rose, all she helped and said and supported, he supposed spending a little extra time with her granddaughters was the least she could ask for. There was nothing in the universe he could ever find that would repay her for her help. He’d forever be in Francine’s debt for how she helped Rose. Forever.

“Where is your mother?” he asked, mind racing ahead to the best places for them to visit.

“In the gardens,” Jenny answered promptly.

The Doctor only nodded though it was obvious Jenny planned this for some time. He suddenly didn’t care. He carefully closed the balcony doors and pressed a kiss to each of his daughters’ foreheads.

With a final look at his family, the Doctor broke down and all but ran to the gardens, anticipation thrumming through his veins.

He pushed open the garden doors and looked around the vast expanse of greenery and riotous blossoms in myriad colors. The Doctor cared for none of that. His mind raced with ideas and plans (well, maybe not plans per se) and Rose.

Spending time with Rose.

“Doctor?” Rose called from where she knelt by the flower bed.

He only spared a glance at the colorful flowers she tended as he knelt before her. She wore a thin top with sleeves that stopped just above her marriage tattoos. Her pendant nestled enticingly between her breasts, the TARDIS key beneath it.

So highly impractical, keeping her TARDIS key around her neck. Hard to access and lean over to awkwardly insert in the lock when they rushed. But he never told her that. Never uttered one word about it, not even in his previous body (especially not then).

Because the sight of that key between her breasts, against her pale skin made him feel primal and possessive and so very not Time Lord. But he didn’t care. Because Rose Tyler wore his key like a badge of pride. And looked very, very good doing it, too.

“Are you all right?” she asked, tugging off her gardening gloves to cup his cheek.

“When did you get back?” he asked. No, that wasn’t what he wanted to say.

“Bit ago. You and Aušra were having a playdate and I needed to forget paperwork for a bit.” She grinned and tilted her head at the new flowers she planted, tongue between her teeth. “So I came in here.”

“Let’s take a trip,” he breathed.

Rose raised an eyebrow. “Now?”

“Right now.” He ignored the dirt clinging to her and the droplets of sweat despite the TARDIS keeping the temperature exactly the way Rose liked it. The Doctor cupped her face, fingers tangling in her hair, and kissed her.

A gentle press of his lips, soft and slow and holding every ounce of passion and love and desire and worship he felt for this woman. More. All of himself, every molecule, every breath.

“I love you, Rose.” He pulled back just a bit, just enough to speak. “I love you more than anything.”

Her breath hitched and she jerked back. “Doctor, what’s wrong?” Her fingers ran down his cheek. “Hey, look at me. What brought this on?”

“Nothing. Well,” he hedged. “Our brilliant daughter. She suggested we go on a trip. You.” He kissed her, a quick peck on the lips. “And me.”

He watched the emotions play across her face. Joy and hesitation, longing and fear. Leaving their children and staying here where she alternately felt trapped and safe. The Doctor knew her so well, so, so well.

“Just a couple of days,” he promised. “You know I’d never leave them for long.”

He felt her nod before he saw it, heard it. The acceptance across their bond blazed warm and all encompassing.

“Where are we going?”


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things get a little bumpy: Or prepare for a universal train through time and space Part 1. NSFW (also slight language)

**Prime Universe:**  
“I remember you saying,” Rose panted as they raced across the square and into another alleyway. “Anywhere in the universe, Rose Tyler, _free of charge_.”

“The TARDIS does,” the Doctor agreed. “Yes. Yes, She does!”

She tightened her hand around his and lengthened her stride. Kept up with him, not as easily as before Aušra’s birth, but then Rose supposed giving birth was a valid excuse for being so out of shape.

“The first thing the New Torcelloans did was try to tax us for entering their city!” she cried, panting harder now.

That did it—she needed to add cardio to her daily regime. Yoga was all fine and dandy for stretching muscles and centering herself, but clearly nearly a year of not running took its toll. And she’d be damned if she didn’t keep in shape.

“That is not the TARDIS’s fault,” he insisted, indignant.

The Doctor abruptly stopped and pulled her into one of the many alleyways that branched off the main avenues. He pressed her against a stone wall, body blanketing hers. They were out of sight just enough, half hidden in a dim side street, and the soldiers barreled past without a glance.

“Rose.”

The soldiers in their 18th century suits with their 51st century blasters clambered down the street, oblivious to the loss of their prey. What was with them and that time period mix?

Rose tore her gaze from the mouth of the alley and looked up at her husband. “Hmm?”

He watched her hungrily, eyes impossibly dark with need and love shining across their bond. “God, I missed this.”

“The running?” Rose asked, admittedly breathless. Her stomach clenched at his look, the unbridled need focused entirely on her. It raced through her blood and settled in a pool of wet heat low in her belly. “Or the shagging against a wall?”

“Both,” he said.

And kissed her, a frantic demand of tongue and teeth. It shuddered through her and what did it matter soldiers and running? The Doctor pressed against her, solid and real and alive.

“Doctor,” she gasped.

And forgot what else she wanted to say. His teeth closed over the sensitive spot between neck and shoulder and his fingers brushed around her nipples through her long-sleeved blouse. He didn’t pinch or touch them directly; she was far too sensitive for that.

Rose opened to him, her mind connected with his even as her body arched into his touch and begged for more.

He crouched slightly, body pressed fully to hers. Hands slid over her hips, down her thighs. An erotic touch even through her loose trousers, slow and knowing. His touch sent shocks of need through her, a clawing, desperate hunger that matched his own.

The Doctor hooked his hands on the back of her thighs and lifted her. Rose wrapped her arms around his shoulders, tangled her hands in his hair, deepened the kiss. Tightened her legs around his hips and rocked against him.

“Doctor,” she whispered against his mouth. But didn’t know if it was for him to stop or continue.

Definitely continue. Yes. Please. More.

His pressed her to the wall, fingers, long and cool, slid up her top and cupped her breast. His other hand cupped her bum, spread the black trousers tight over her and held her securely. It sparked through her, a hot rush of need and she rolled her hips, rocked against him.

“Right here.” She managed.

“Was that a question?” His words were a cool caress over her lips, down her throat. “Or a demand?”

“Yes,” she hissed.

He nipped her throat and she cried out, body coiling tighter with every touch.

“Don’t make a sound, Rose,” the Doctor breathed against her skin. “Don’t want the guards to find us.”

His fingers left her breast, heavy and aching for more, and skimmed down her belly. Teased along the hem of her trousers.

“I’m wearing skirts from now on,” she grumbled.

But then the Doctor’s fingers slipped the button free and tugged the zipper down and what did it matter what she wore? His touch set her off, the firmness, the controlled flick of his fingers over her. The deliberate way he brushed over her sex, grazed his nails against her clit.

“I want to taste you,” he said and finally, finally slipped a finger into her.

Rose clenched around it, wanted more. Hands tangled in his hair, she tugged hard. Crushed her lips to his even as she rocked against his hand.

“Fuck me, Doctor,” she groaned. “I need to feel you.”

He growled, a low rumble that vibrated along her sensitive skin. He kissed her hard, harder, tongue and teeth and desperation that burned just as brightly over their bond as the throbbing arousal beat in time to her heart.

Even with Time stretched between them, stretched out and out and thin until every move heightened and every kiss lasted an eternity, Rose had no idea how he undressed her. They stood in the middle of a cool, dark alley on a planet that resembled Venice more than anything, with soldiers chasing them. But he managed.

(Later he’d say it was because he’s the Doctor and that’s all the explanation needed. She never really bought that. But, oh, when he slowed Time it made her shiver and her insides clench. Each touch a thousand brushes of ecstasy. And she wanted _more_.)

All that mattered was when he slipped into her, so deliciously hard and cool and perfect. Well, the stone wall scraped against her back and it took them a minute to get the angle right and she knocked her elbow against said wall, but it really didn’t matter.

He held her tightly, fingers digging into her hips and bum, bond cradling her as securely as his physical body did. It was rough and fast and so perfect the emotion overwhelmed her even as her orgasm tore through her.

Rose bit his shoulder to muffle her cries, not that she cared who heard her.

He continued to move, long rough thrusts that stole the breath from her. Held him closer. Rose leaned her forehead against his shoulder and tried to catch her breath. Her orgasm continued to burn through her, fingers tingling, blood rushing.

Turned her head to press her lips to that spot just behind his ear and her fingers brushed through the hair at the nape of his neck.

The Doctor stilled, her name torn from him as he came. Rose tightened her body around his to keep him there though her limbs protested. They stayed like that, exposed in the alley, joined as intimately as if they curled around each other in their bed, bond pulsing with love and sated need, and bodies still thrumming with the power of their joining.

“I love you,” she whispered.

Eventually, he slipped from her and slowly set her on the ground, hands so gentle, lazy kisses of promises and forevers. “And I you, my hearts. More than you know.”

Rose cupped his face and sighed against him. Let her lips linger on his. “I know.”

They dressed with tender touches and drawn-out kisses. Sighs and caresses and drawn-out touches. Once more presentable, though Rose had no idea how her shirt wasn’t shredded (Time Lord Advantage, she suspected), she took his hand and they walked back onto the main street.

Limbs loose, a knot of tension eased from her shoulders. Breathing deeply of water and rubbish and life, she looked up at the blazing sun and grimaced. Then tried to block out the scent of stagnant waterways.

In the distance she heard the soldiers continue to search for them and looked quizzically at the Doctor. Surely they’d have looked farther by now, spread out their search or forgotten the couple who hadn’t paid their entry tax.

He smirked down at her, hair wild (wilder), love bites neatly covered by his many layers. “Time Lord, me.” He boasted. “Slowed down time.”

Rose snickered in return and wrapped her hand tighter around his.

“I want to show our children the universe,” Rose said as they walked down the street.

They blended in with the rest of the crowd, tourists and residents and business-beings. No guards tried to stop them and Rose wondered what sort of alarm they set off to have the guards on them in the first place.

She didn’t even hear them now. It was as if they disappeared.

“I want them to see every world they want to see and run as often as we do.” Then she frowned. “No, I don’t want them running as often as we do. I want them safe.”

Rose sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. “Parenting is _hard_ ,” she muttered.

The Doctor grinned, a soft understanding look that held no answers. But he squeezed her hand and led her along the winding stone sidewalk to the shopping district.

“With knowledge they can protect themselves. Their TARDIS’s will be programed with the same historical data as ours,” he promised. Then added hastily, “And maybe a better navigation system.”

Rose laughed and leaned her head against his arm. “I want them to know their family, Martha and Donna and Tish, Keisha and Luke. Francine and Sarah Jane.” She sighed and looked up at the sky, as a cloud rolled overhead. “But I want them to know what it’s like to have a new world beneath their feet.”

“They will, Rose,” he said. “We’ll see to that.” The Doctor paused and she felt him take a deep breath before asking, “Is that what you want? To travel? We talked about it, but…”

“I’m very sure about that,” she promised. “And I know what I said about staying in Earth’s linear time …” She bit her lip and watched the Doctor from the corner of her eye, but turned their attention to the shops, the old stone buildings and cobblestone streets.

“I want…I want to see the shops,” she said with a nod toward the row of buildings, each hanging a bright sign from their door with pictures of what they sold. “So we better figure out how to pay their tax. Where’s the psychic paper?”

He dug around a pocket and held it out for her. Rose glanced at it and for a moment thought she saw a message from Jack. Scribbled in his unique scrawl with characters that weren’t the English she used.

Rose blinked and it disappeared.

She frowned and concentrated on it again, but nothing. The psychic paper remained blank.

“Doctor?” She handed the paper back to him and pulled him to a stop along a building, out of foot traffic. “Do you see a message from Jack?”

He looked down at it with a puzzled frown. “Why wouldn’t he just call?”

Rose already had out her mobile and pressed keys. “I don’t know. Let me text him.”

She sent off a quick text _Everything all right? Weird psychic paper message._

They didn’t have to wait long before he sent back, _All right as in…? I don’t need you guys to rush back if that’s what you mean. We’re good here. Girls are fine._

“He says he’s all right,” Rose told the Doctor and held up the mobile for him to see.

“Could be an echo, Rose.” He didn’t sound convinced. “We’re in his time, maybe a message went wonky.”

“Wonky?” She asked with a snort of laughter. They continued down the street to the end building. The sign advertised glassware. Perfect. “That a technical term?”

“Oh yes.” He grinned at her, eyes crinkling at the corners, and nodded sagely. “Very technical Time Lord Term.”

Despite his humor, unease settled in her belly; Rose managed to push it aside, but she felt it in the Doctor, too. That tense wait, the possibilities.

Everyone was fine—Aušra was with Jenny and their family watched over both children. And Jack just said they were good. He wouldn’t lie about that. Both Aušra’s faint bond and Jenny’s strong dark purple one pulsed evenly in the back of her mind.

If something was truly wrong, even from this galactic and era distance Jenny could contact the Doctor. Rose had never been more grateful for that than right now and swore she’d never take it for granted. 

Plus, just because a psychic message went a bit wonky didn’t mean anything...

So she laughed and pushed her worry aside and rested her head on his shoulder. “Thank you, Doctor.”

Her body still hummed from her orgasm even as the odd message worried her, but deep in her soul she felt at peace. The Doctor had treated her so tenderly since Aušra’s birth that today, the rough sex in the alleyway, made her feel better than she thought it could.

“Jenny was right,” she continued. “We needed today.”

Though she devoutly hoped her daughter didn’t think they needed rough sex—Rose preferred to live in ignorance about Jenny and sex for a little while longer. She was, despite her looks, a year old.

The Doctor hesitated. “Are you sure you’re okay? I mean…I didn’t mean to,” he trailed off and she knew without moving her head from his shoulder he tugged his ear. “I didn’t hurt you?”

Rose did look up then. She once more pulled him off the footpath and met his eyes with all the seriousness this conversation deserved. Meaning she smiled widely and made sure her tongue peeked out of the corner of her mouth. As she already knew, his eyes zeroed in on her lips.

“Doctor,” she purred and draped her arms over his shoulders. “It was fantastic.”

He grinned smugly for a moment. “Yeah, it was.”

She kissed him softly, a quick press to his lips. “And you could never hurt me.”

He tenderly brushed her hair behind her ear and studied her. “I have,” he whispered.

Rose nodded slowly. “Yes, true, but that wasn’t physical.” Her grin widened, turned wicked. “Unless I wanted it.” She sobered and took his hand, squeezed it reassuringly. “And we’re past that. No more secrets.” She shook her head. “No more dangerous secrets. I know you have things you haven’t told me.”

“Rose—” The Doctor sucked in a breath and looked skyward. “It’s not that—I want to—it’s just—”

She sighed. No, she hadn’t expected a confession of things in his past he hadn’t got round to telling her. Not really.

There were people he cared about, loved, who died or disappeared or stopped talking to him. There was his family. She knew of Susan, of course, and what happened to her; but not the names of his children or any other grandchildren.

“No more running.” Rose spoke the words softly, clearly. Willed him to understand she didn’t mean running only from her, from them, but from his past. “Yeah?”

“Yeah,” the Doctor said, voice thick. 

Rose stood on her toes and pressed her lips to his. Then she tugged him back into foot traffic and resumed their trek to the glassware shop. “Except from customs, yeah?”

He laughed, and over their bond she felt the popping fuzz she always associated with confusion. Not confusion, she thought as they entered the shop and the Doctor flashed the psychic paper to ‘prove’ they paid their entry tax.

Unworthy.

There weren’t many times any more, those times he pulled back because he felt he wasn’t good enough for her. Whatever that meant. Was anyone ever ‘good enough’ for another? Wasn’t that what complimentary relationships were all about?

Then again, wasn’t reinforcing that love and acceptance and understanding what plain old relationships were all about?

As they pushed into the shop, Rose pushed those thoughts to the side. This was their first outing without the kids. Time to make the most of it.

The shop was huge and deep, three levels of delicate figurines in colors she had no name for and shapes that made her stare like a first time traveler. Rose wondered if they had glassmaking lessons here, but didn’t want to take one now.

Still, she thought it’d be fun to learn how to blow glass or whatever it was they did in the 51st century. Or the 21st for all she knew about glassmaking.

“Doctor,” she called, holding a small cat figurine that reminded her of Winston. Rose looked up to find her husband.

She didn’t see the Doctor. She saw Jack. Rose looked up to see Jack in the center of the street outside the windows. Then watched Jack disappear. Literally vanish from sight.

“Rose?” the Doctor asked from beside her.

He sounded worried and Rose forced her gaze from the outside street to blink at him. She immediately looked back outside but there was no sign of Jack.

“I saw Jack,” she whispered.

The Doctor frowned and stepped closer to the windows. “Our Jack?”

Rose hesitated then shook her head. “No. No, I don’t think he was ours. And I don’t think this was before we met him, either.”

He turned that frown on her. “What do you mean?”

“He looked older,” she began then stopped. “No.” Slowly cocked her head to the left in a half-shake. “Not older, like…like he aged regularly, but _older_.”

She stopped and licked her lips. The Doctor whipped out his sonic and scanned the area.

“Like,” she continued, a chill running up her spine, “it’s been 50 thousand years and he’s lived through each year.”

“No residual transmat energy,” he mumbled and squinted at the sonic.

He took out his glasses and possibly for the first time ever Rose ignored the sexy specs. Mostly ignored. It was damn difficult to do so. 

“And no sign of recent Vortex Manipulator activity, either.” He frowned and shook the sonic.

Though uncertainty continued to gnaw through her, Rose kept her hands loose at her side. The Doctor already felt her anxiety, her worry; she didn’t need to advertise it to the rest of the shop.

“Does that help?” she asked in a weak attempt at easing the situation.

“Yes.” And stuck his lower lip out in a pout.

She wanted to kiss him. She admirably refrained. Because she didn’t know what to make of Jack disappearing before her eyes. It didn’t look like a Manipulator—there was no residual flash or energy pricking her skin.

Jack Harkness simply disappeared.

“Nothing?” Rose asked after another minute.

“No, no unusual energy.” He sighed and put the sonic back in his inner jacket pocket. He folded his glasses and put them away, too. “Nothing on Jack’s, ah…” he looked around the shop but no one paid any overt attention to them. “On his unusual energy, either.”

Rose nodded and scanned the street again. “I swear it was him,” she whispered. “And I know I saw his writing on the psychic paper, too.”

“What did it say?” the Doctor asked, curious.

Hand on the small of her back, he led her further into the shop, past tables of small figurines and touristy trinkets and to where the larger, more ornate, and far more expensive pieces sat. And where the number of beings wandering around lessened considerably.

“I only saw a glimpse,” Rose told him in a low, soft voice. She didn’t think they’d be overheard, but who knew which being had super hearing. Or some sort of tech to eavesdrop.

“Something about Demon’s Run?” She tilted her head. “What’s Demon’s Run?”

The Doctor shook his head. “I don’t know. Never heard of it.” His gaze lost its focus and their bond narrowed as he concentrated inwardly.

“I don’t know if the Time Ripples are getting worse.” He ran a hand over his face. “Or evening out. I thought they’d stabilize the closer we came to the epicenter, linear time at least.”

The Doctor sighed and suddenly looked tired, old and tired and defeated. Rose took his hand, the only comfort she knew to offer. He looked at her, his eyes sharp and focused once more.

“Is the epicenter here?” Rose asked. “Not here, this shop—” she waved a hand around the glassworks. “But this century? Or…or do the Ripples spread so far out, they never end?” She tried to keep her heart rate steady and the sudden panic under control. “You’ve been all over, the beginning of galaxies and solar systems and so far into the future. Do the Ripples just…I don’t know, follow you?”

“No.” But he didn’t look, or feel, convinced. “No. I don’t know.” He ran a hand through his hair. Pressed his fingertips to his eyelids. “I don’t understand why they haven’t stabilized; I don’t understand where they’re coming from.”

“Is it…” Rose licked her lips and looked around again. They were still alone. She took a deep breath and asked, “Is it because of me?”

His gaze swung to hers, piercing and honest despite his own lack of knowledge on this subject.

“No.” He shifted to stand directly in front of her, hands on her arms. “Rose, _no_. You asked that before and the answer is still _no_. If this wasn’t supposed to happen, if this Time Line wasn’t meant to be, it wouldn’t be. That’s how the universe works. It’s very good at correcting itself.”

She nodded slowly, short jerky movements of her head. “And Jack disappearing on the street?”

The Doctor sighed, shoulders slumped. “I just don’t know.”

But then he straightened and the whirlwind mad man in a box came to the fore once again. “But don’t you worry, Rose Tyler.” He lifted her left hand to his lips, kissed her palm just below her wedding ring. “We’ll figure it out. I promise you. Love a good mystery, me!”

He smiled happily at her and tugged her out of the shop. Rose easily walked along, but her mind raced. Jumped from one topic to another. From disappearing Jack to her and Jack’s appearances in New York 1930. From their Time Ripple dreams to the disappearing stars.

“What if the disappearing stars in that other universe have something to do with the Time Ripples?”

“How so?” he asked as they wandered down the street, all thoughts of relaxation and shopping gone.

“I don’t know, I don’t know how they connect. But if the Ripples are echoes of what was,” she said slowly, thinking through each word before she uttered it. “And we dream about them and, apparently, sometimes see that echo like with the psychic paper and with Jack…” 

“Could be,” the Doctor agreed. He didn’t sound convinced, but Rose knew that tone. It was the _let met think about it in my massive Time Lord Brain for a second to see all angles_ tone.

Rose sighed. “I don’t know.”

“Did you feel anything in Pete’s World?” the Doctor asked. “Any of these Ripples there?”

They turned off into a park and wandered on the green grass…no. Rose did a double take. The dirt was green. So was the grass. Huh. Cool. And the leaves, too, though the tree trunks were brown. She squinted at them even as she thought about the Doctor’s words.

“Are the tree trunks brown?” she asked. “Or kinda orangy?”

He squinted at the trunks. “Orange,” he agreed.

She loved new worlds, even with colors she recognized, everything was different.

“Not in the other universe, no.” Rose shook her head. “But I don’t know if that means anything for here. Everything from World War II onward was different, what with the Nazi occupation.”

“Really?” he asked, voice higher with his interest, grin wide. He squeezed her hand and guided her along the path where the trees created an intimate bough. “I didn’t know that, you never said.” He tugged his ear. “Always wondered, but never gave it much thought.”

“Yeah, I wanted to know why zeppelins were so popular.” Rose did not add that she had far too much time on her hands for those months after ‘arriving’ in that world. And waiting on the Doctor to figure a way through.

She should’ve known she needed to do it herself. Now she grinned up at him. They were together again and that was what counted.

“Apparently the Hindenburg never caught fire there and when the Nazi’s occupied southern England during the Blitz they use factories there to build bunches of them. Faster than a boat across the Channel to occupied France.”

“And after the war?”

“England didn’t have much other infrastructure,” she said, shortening the history lesson. “The bombing raids destroyed a lot of the coast. So they kept using the zeppelins they already had. Transferred control to British-owned companies.”

“Huh. Fascinating!” He grinned down at her.

She laughed and looked up at him. And all of a sudden she knew. In the time it took her to grin and look up at the Doctor, Rose’s mind jumped from zeppelins to Jackie and Mickey. From them to her work on the Dimension Cannon; from that to her first jump and how astronomical those odds were she’d find the Doctor on her very first go.

“They run ahead.”

Rose stopped and stared up at the Doctor. He frowned down at her but she knew, Rose _knew_ she was right.

“They run ahead. Mickey was gone three years when he jumped back to our Torchwood,” Rose said, talking faster now. “Three years to our, what? Mickey estimated it was like three months for you when I was getting ready to initially jump back. But it was longer than that for us, yeah? When he was over there for three years fighting Cybermen before Torchwood—”

She shook her head and brought herself back on track. Waved away the time difference because it wasn’t how much time that passed but the fact that time passed differently.

“The actual time differences don’t matter,” she said excitedly. “And it’s nearly impossible to figure out how long we were actually gone since we didn’t stay in Mum’s Time Stream. What matters—”

The Doctor, eyes bright with pride (and lust) and excitement of his own, nodded. “They run ahead of us.”

“Exactly!” Rose grinned back “They run ahead of us. Maybe that’s why the cannon jumpers aren’t working. Why Mickey or Jake can’t follow me through. Because they’re not aligned with the proper time. Or time in our universe. We’re just behind them or they’re just ahead of us and they’re not aligned!”

“And that might be why you saw Jack,” the Doctor added. “If the Time Ripples are part of this, if they’re also not linear, then these echoes are out of synch!”

He grabbed her to him and kissed her hard. “Oh, Rose Tyler, you’re brilliant!” The Doctor pulled back and grinned that wide, proud, happy grin at her. “Allons-y!” And he took her hand and they raced back to the TARDIS to check her theories.

Of course it wasn’t that easy.

There were still the disappearing planets and the lack of gaps between universes and even with the tweaking the Doctor did it was a fine and rather tedious process. But it was a start. And the TARDIS scanners searched far and wide, increasing the time difference with each pass from 0.0000000001 second up to…well, whenever the scans revealed the gaps and fine-tuned the frequency.

Rose had only one request to the universe: _Please keep our children safe. Please._

 

***Torcello** is a sparsely populated island at the northern end of the Venetian Lagoon, in north-eastern Italy. So basically Rose and the Doctor visited New Venice.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They leave, they always leave. But maybe this time we’ll keep in touch.

**Prime Universe:**  
“New York?” Rose repeated.

She thought she heard wrong. Jenny promised to grab drinks and snacks from the kitchen and the moment she had, Martha broke down.

“Yeah,” Martha whispered. “Better than New New York, eh?”

But the joke fell flat. Rose cleared her throat and nodded. She opened her mouth to speak, but couldn’t force words past the lump in her throat.

_Don’t go. I’ll miss you._

Rose swallowed tears, blinked rapidly, and nodded again. “It’s a great opportunity,” she managed.

“I haven’t accepted,” Martha whispered.

She jerked her gaze from where she watched Aušra play with Martha’s shoelaces. “Why not?” Rose demanded.

Martha licked her lips. “Jack’ll be staying here. He’s not part of the scientific initiative. Despite his expertise, he doesn’t have the background I do.” Her voice grew thick and faint. “He’ll still be UNIT’s liaison with the Doctor.”

“Does he know?” Rose asked.

Martha shook her head. “I don’t know how to tell him.”

Rose started to nod then stopped. Cocked her head to the side “Are you sure he doesn’t know?”

Her friend—her _sister_ —laughed. “No, I’m not sure. Probably does.”

“He’d follow you anyway,” Rose said. “If you wanted him to.” Martha didn’t reply and Rose understood. “Do you want him to?”

“Yes. No.” Martha sighed and slumped in the lounge chair. She picked up Aušra, tickled her, effectively hiding her face. “I do. I want to stay with him, either here in London or in New York or wherever.”

“But…?”

“He’ll live forever,” Martha sighed. “He’ll outlive me not by decades or centuries but by _billions_ of years.”

Ah. This Rose understood. This she knew. This she fought through already. This was a reason—not the main reason but a considering factor—for her initial foray into asking the Doctor if he wanted children. Rose almost laughed at her past self’s reasoning.

Now she couldn’t imagine life without her family, her beautiful children and the possibilities they held.

But that Rose, before Cybermen and Daleks and living a universe away, wanted children with the Doctor so he’d never be alone after she’d…gone.

Today’s Rose wanted a family and wanted one with the Doctor.

“Are you afraid of being with a man who won’t grow old at the same time? That won’t _look_ older than you?” Rose asked cautiously. “Or are you afraid he’ll find someone with a longer lifespan?”

Martha snorted and looked up from the baby. “There is no one with his lifespan. Only the Doctor comes close.”

Rose nodded, not sure what to say. Or if conversation was required. She had no idea how to take this news but the only thing she could do was support Martha. It’s what friends did and if there was one thing she learned from Mickey’s staying in the other universe it was that selfishness had no place in friendship.

“If you want this, then go for it.” Rose swallowed and smiled. It felt more natural than she thought it would. But her heart hurt and the world spun as if she floated in space, unanchored and drifting.

“Don’t worry about Jack’s lifespan.” Rose paused. “Did I ever tell you about my first meeting with Sarah Jane?”

The guilt over that was never going away and Rose accepted it. Mostly. Sorta. No…not really.

Martha looked up from Aušra and watched her steadily. “I’m sure you did but I can’t remember it right now. Right now my thoughts are all the same—stay or go. With or without.”

Rose breathed out a laugh. “The Doctor, this new Doctor, and I hadn’t got back together after his regeneration. Still feeling our way. He’d told me he was alone, had no one and I took it to mean literally. Not that he never went back, not that he had loads of friends he could call on. When we met Sarah Jane, I was so jealous and he said…”

She stopped and closed her eyes. In her mind’s eye she easily pictured the setting. The cool evening air and the light from that café bistro thingy and the look on his face. She smiled and shook her head.

“I can’t remember his exact words; it was a long time ago. But it went something like I’d wither and die and he’d have to live on.”

Martha snorted. “Sounds like him. But Jack…”

Rose looked up but Martha’s face paled and she looked ashen and scared. “Jack…he’s never said that. I think he’s the opposite of the Doctor. Wants to stay. Needs those relationships that keep him grounded.”

“He loves you, Martha.”

“I know. And we’re in a really good place. We understand each other and no matter who—or what—” she grinned wide, there and gone but real, so very real—“he flirts with I know he’s committed to me.”

Rose nodded and tried to think of something inspirational—or at the very least understanding—to say. “Do you want a relationship with him?”

Martha stared at Aušra for another long moment. “He almost didn’t regenerate.” She looked up, dark eyes haunted. “Or wake up or whatever it is he does when he comes back to life. He almost didn’t.”

“When—” Rose’s heart thudded painfully, her mouth dried up, and she tried to grasp Martha’s words. “When was this?”

“Two weeks ago.” Martha swallowed. “Fifteen days. He takes risks. Doesn’t care if he gets hurt or shot or anything. Knows he’s going to come back.”

She paused and when she spoke again it was a breath of pain and fear and love. “What if he doesn’t? What if he’s jumping in front of a bullet or laser or whatever for _me_ and he doesn’t come back?”

“But he did?” Rose demanded. Her voice sounded very faint over the roar in her ears.

Of course he had. She’d spoken to Jack just this morning. He answered Martha’s phone with a cheery invitation to join them before breakfast. She could bring the Doctor, too, if he wanted. And then _after_ for breakfast, too.

“And he’s all right?” she continued without waiting for an answer. “So it was, what? Like a fluke?”

“I don’t know.” Martha shook her head. “But I was terrified he wouldn’t wake up.”

Rose released her breath in a rush. “This I know how to handle.” She nodded decisively and grinned. “Martha, don’t run. It never works.” She grinned cheekily. “Just ask the Doctor.”

But then she sobered and crossed to Martha’s chair. She took her sister’s hand and squeezed. Aušra giggled and slapped their hands together. Grinning, Rose turned their joined hands over and included her daughter’s.

“If you need time, tell him. If you want to end things, tell him that, too. Don’t just run to New York and pretend everything’ll be okay.”

“I wasn’t planning on running,” Martha hedged. But her fingers tightened on Rose’s.

Rose laughed and shook her head. “I never thought I’d be the one giving relationship advice to anyone. Not known for having a mature relationship, the Doctor and me.”

She lifted Aušra onto her lap and stretched out beside Martha who leaned her head on Rose’s shoulder. They sat like that for a while, the intimacy of friendship.

“Ask yourself these questions, Martha: Can you see yourself growing older with Jack? Can you see him in your life in 10 or 40 years?” Rose took a breath. “Do you want kids with him?”

“I don’t know,” Martha admitted. “I just don’t know.”

********  
“Where’s Rose?” Donna asked the minute she stepped through the TARDIS doors.

The Doctor looked at her askance but didn’t comment. It’d taken centuries and multiple bodies for him to learn, but with all this _family_ traveling with him, he finally had. So he kept questions and snark to himself and leaned against the console, hands in his trouser pockets.

“She’s in the gardens with Martha and Jenny,” he simply said. His smile was slow and soft and he added. “And the baby.”

Donna nodded once, uncharacteristically silent. She didn’t ask after him, or his and Rose’s trip—or even comment on his smile, which she had (with much glee) in the past. She barely looked at him. The Doctor eyed her as she exited the console room and turned toward the gardens.

He shrugged and turned back to his scans. Still nothing on the missing stars. But the TARDIS continued to narrow down the scans, the time differential. It was, no pun intended, only a matter of time before he (they, all right, he and the TARDIS) found the right time difference between this universe and Pete’s World.

And then maybe they’d be able to contact Mickey there. Find out what was happening with the disappearing stars. And how he was, how Jackie and Pete were. Rose’s family.

Not that he felt a stab of irrational jealousy over her seeing her family again. Not at all. Maybe a stab of irrational fear, but never jealousy. Because she was happy. Right? Yes. She missed her mum and Mickey, but Rose was happy here with him and their family and their extended family.

Yes. He knew that. But it was so hard not blaming himself. He was a possessive selfish man and he didn’t regret one moment of their time since her jump back to him.

“Nothing,” he grumbled. “Come on,” he said to the TARDIS and patted Her console. “Show us what you’ve got. I know there’s something out there. Find it for me, yeah?” 

He tweaked scans he’d tweaked and recalibrated calibrations he’d calibrated so many times he didn’t know what else to do. No sign of the disappearing stars. No hint of gaps between universes.

And the Time Ripples, nothing there either. The fact he and Rose encountered one so far into their relative future terrified him. Bad enough they affected he and his wife, Martha and Jack, but they nearly crippled Jenny.

The Doctor knew he was not a passive man. He did things that made others cringe, avoid, judge him for. But there was one indisputable fact: anything that threatened his family he’d destroy.

He didn’t necessarily like that about himself. He didn’t necessarily trust himself with that knowledge, either. But there it was, laid out bare before him. He’d protect his family with everything in him.

He hoped the cost wasn’t too high. 

“Have you ever lied to Rose?”

The Doctor most certainly did not jump at Donna’s unexpected question. But he did spin round wildly and maybe, possibly, just perhaps, twisted his ankle in the process. Maybe.

“What?”

“Rose,” Donna repeated slowly. “Have you ever lied to her? Kept secrets from her?”

It was on the tip of his tongue to deny it—no, of course he hadn’t lied to her. Then he snapped his mouth closed and thought about it. 

“Not purposely,” he said slowly. “Not to hurt her.”

He still remembered his lies to Martha when she first traveled with him—how he wasn’t alone and Gallifrey still existed. His lies that nothing changed when everything had—he lost it all and lost Rose and what had any of it mattered?

A bleak lonely existence stretched before him, then, and he hadn’t cared if he lived or died.

Or when he didn’t give Rose’s wants any thought and dropped the dimension hopper over her head. When he made that choice for her and watched her disappear—watched his entire world disappear because of his own stupid, terrified actions.

( _She’s not just living in a parallel world, Jack…she’s trapped there…_

Where had that memory come from? He shook his head and dizziness engulfed him. Time Ripple. Didn’t happen. Hadn’t happened. Something stopped it but what? Did it matter?

All that mattered was Rose with him and their family.)

Rose’s love blossomed over their bond, warm and reassuring. He sucked in a breath and nodded. No. He wasn’t alone. Not any longer. He had Rose and his daughters. He had his extended family, friends.

The Doctor tilted his head to the side and shrugged, hands back in his trouser pockets. “Why?”

“Shaun.”

He stared at her and waited. He had no idea what a Shaun was, though it seemed as if Donna expected him to. So he waited, silently, for her to continue.

“I love him.”

“Ah.” The Doctor nodded.

“Or I think I do,” Donna continued. “He’s smart and funny and listens to me. He didn’t bat an eye at working at UNIT. Knows all about aliens and what’s happened on Earth, all those invasions. Signed that nondisclosure waver without pause.”

She stopped and took a breath. Opened her mouth then snapped it closed again.

The Doctor, wildly out of his depth, sent a frantic plea for help to Rose. Then he tempered it—no sense having her think he was in danger in their own home. Carefully caressing the thread of their bond, he focused on Rose and the strengthening of their connection.

He closed his eyes, brought the shining gold-red thread into the forefront of his mind until it was all, and very clearly told her, _Donna needs relationship help._

And very clearly heard her laugh over their bond. So not helping. Then he heard what roughly translated to: _The blind leading the blind._

“Oi!”

Donna glared at him and huffed. The Doctor held up his hands and wondered how he found himself in such a situation. But he dutifully cleared his throat and stepped off the cliff.

“I take it he doesn’t know about—” he waved a hand around the TARDIS—“all this?”

Donna snorted. “No. I couldn’t tell him. Well,” she hedged. “I tried, but it got all jumbled.” She snorted again. “Sounded like you, I did, all babbling nothing and nonsense.”

“Hey!” he protested but swallowed and continued his downward plunge. “Listen, Donna. Keeping secrets from a…a…a _fling_ is one thing. But if you care about this Shaun, you have to tell him.”

“Tell him what? That I travel with a mad alien and his family?”

“Rose is human,” the Doctor offered.

Donna glared again.

He sighed and rubbed his eye. “Okay, look. Tell him. He works for UNIT, he signed the nondisclosure thing, he sees what’s going on around him. If you’re serious, if you want to—to what?” Frowning, he narrowed his eyes at her. “What do you want?”

She paled and seemed to shrink into herself, dropped her hands loosely at her side and looked utterly dejected. “I don’t know. A life here? A family? I don’t know. I don’t want to stop traveling,” she whispered, “but I don’t want to lose him, either.”

The Doctor nodded. “Work on not losing him first. If you want him, if you love him, tell him the truth. Don’t lie, it only muddles things up. And you can never come back from that.”

“Did you trust Rose right away?” Donna asked, eying him suspiciously.

“Rose knew who and what I was, yes.” He nodded then very slowly offered a slice of their history. “When I met her, I was in a bad place. I’d lost everyone, my family, my people, my world.”

He stopped and swallowed hard, but plunged on. This was important to Donna, he could tell. Why she asked him, the Doctor had no idea but a little honesty between friends seemed to be what was required so he’d do it.

Honesty was _hard._

“Rose…she showed me how to live again. How to find joy in little things. How to stop running.” He smiled at her and nodded. “Maybe that’s what Shaun is to you. The person who’ll listen as you scream at the world, but reminds you that you don’t need to shout to be heard.”

Donna looked at him for another long minute. All at once she relaxed, a total release of tension. She nodded and stepped back, smiling. “Thank you, Doctor,” she whispered.

Then she turned and started for, presumably, the gardens again.

He felt Rose’s soft amusement, but stronger, her love. It was difficult to send words or sentences over their bond; it wasn’t fully telepathic unless they touched and even then it was hard to communicate that way. Her pregnancy strengthened it, and the Doctor hoped that increased intimacy lasted.

But her sentiment was evident. She was proud of him for opening up and helping Donna.

“Oh, the things I do for my friends,” he told the TARDIS.

Winston leaped onto the console, startling him. The Doctor eyed the cat but ignored him. It was usually a mutual beneficial ignoring, so the Doctor didn’t know what Winston was doing in the console room when it was only the Doctor and the TARDIS.

Still, he absently picked up the cat and stroked his back. Winston, shockingly, allowed him. “They really are the best part of me,” he added.

********  
Rose lay sweaty stretched out atop him as they caught their breaths. He felt the press of her marriage pendant against his ribs and the lighter press of the TARDIS key she insisted on wearing on a chain around her neck.

Eyes closed, one arm behind his head, the Doctor ran his hand down her spine, over each individual vertebra as if to memorize the feel of her skin beneath his touch.

In truth, he long ago memorized the feel of her, but his hands craved the touch of her skin. The deeper link that blossomed between them at the feel of contact; the seclusion and intimacy and love that wrapped around them like a cocoon to keep out the noise and commotion of the outside universe.

“Hmm,” Rose hummed and pressed her lips in the spot between his hearts.

She lifted her head and shook her hair off her sweaty face. The Doctor smiled and moved just enough to brush the strands behind her ear. He let his fingers linger on her cheek and his hearts stumbled in his chest.

“I love you,” he whispered. The words ripped from his very soul.

Her smile was slow, soft. It lifted at the corner of her mouth until it took over her entire face. Rose leaned forward and kissed him. A sigh of touch, a whisper of contact. Her hands braced on his chest, fingers spread wide to touch each of his hearts.

He felt the words as much as he heard them. The resonating echo deep in his mind where his link with Rose pulsed. 

_“And I love you, my Doctor.”_

His breath caught and he swallowed hard to clear the lump of love and need and sheer affection. Rose’s eyes shone with that love, the burning fire of it. Hands on her hips, he tightened his hold and drew her closer.

_Rose…_

He didn’t voice her name, but thought it. Their connection did grow stronger and the Doctor hoped, with practice, they’d be able to actually communicate telepathically even without touching. It’d probably be limited without a touch, given he was a touch telepath, but the Doctor had hope.

Tangling one hand in her hair, he kissed her hard, with all the ever present desire he had for this amazing woman. She broke the kiss and grinned widely again.

“Telepathy is exhausting,” Rose admitted.

She rolled off him then, but instantly curled against him. The Doctor reached down and felt around for the sheet from where they pushed it aside. He tugged it up and settled it over them. Rose hummed again and once more rested her head on his chest, her hand curled loose between his hearts.

“You’re still practicing with Jenny?” he asked though knew her answer.

“Every day. I think the bond is growing.” She traced the Gallifreyan of his name over his chest. “I can feel her all the time now.”

He felt her smile on his skin and it made his hearts lurch in joy. He always wanted her smiling. It was his lives goal.

“And blocking her is easier?” The Doctor tried not to think of his daughter as a woman and certainly didn’t want her—either of his daughters—to know what he and their mother did in their bedroom. And the gardens. The kitchen counter. The console room.

Nope. None of that.

She laughed, a breath along his skin and the Doctor shivered, tightened his arm around her.

“Oh yes.” She looked up at him and nodded. “Trust me; I don’t want her knowing what we do, either.” Rose sniffed and said in a prim voice at odds with her nudity. And the two orgasms he brought her to. “She’s far too young.”

“She’ll always be too young,” he grumbled.

He felt her smile and relaxed against her. They lay like that for some time, the comfort of touch, the familiarity of _them_ in their bedroom. The balcony doors stood wide open to the hot, dry breeze from the Gallifreyan view the TARDIS showed and the sheer white curtains danced in the simulated wind.

Rose’s addition, the curtains. Certainly not his. They were a relatively recent addition, installed after her return to him. _(Curtains in the kitchen are one thing, Rose Tyler. But not in my bedroom!)_

But the Doctor, grudgingly, agreed—sheer curtains fluttering in the wind added a certain something to the intimacy of their bedroom. 

The Doctor thought he could stay like this, with his beloved in his arms, his children safe on his TARDIS, forever.

“I was thinking,” Rose started deliberately. “About what you said. Staying here? In this timeline.”

He stiffened and immediately tried to relax, but it was too late. Of course Rose knew, felt it. More than the physical tension, no matter how he tried it vibrated over their bond in discordant waves. She lifted her head and met his gaze.

“I want Aušra and Jenny to know their family. I want them to know what it’s like to have that link, that connection to people.” She bit her lip and looked down. Cleared her throat.

The Doctor waited, his hearts pounding, blood roaring in his hears. Timelines swirled around him in a chaotic mess of possibilities. But they often did these days—not only with the Time Ripples which severely hampered his Time Sense but whenever it had to do with his relationship with Rose.

He deliberately looked away from the timelines. Focused only on Rose. On the brilliance that was their entwined timelines.

“But it’ll be hard, yeah?” It wasn’t so much a question as a fact. “With everyone aging and them, you… us I suppose…not.”

He opened his mouth, shut it immediately. He didn’t know what to say. And knew, all too well, Rose’s dilemma.

“What do you think?”

The Doctor started. He expected Rose to make a decision—whatever it was, he’d go along with it. Whether to stay in linear time or not, it was up to her.

Frankly, he hoped she’d make the decision and he wouldn’t have to.

He licked his lips, but continued to trace his fingers down her spine, over the generous swell of her bum. Along her throat where her heart beat strong against his fingers. How did he tell her? How did he tell her he wanted every second with her to himself?

That he was jealous of their beautiful children for taking time away from him. Jealous of the time she slept or the hours she spent with Martha or Donna or Francine.

Jealous of every second she wasn’t with him.

Their children. How did he tell her he wanted children only with her? That he wanted children not for him, but for her. For when she outlived their Earthbound family, and he’d see to it she lived a long, long time, she’d have their children?

Now, with Jenny and Aušra, the Doctor realized it was far, far more than that. He wanted their children for him, too. To have a piece of his beloved when…

“I’m a selfish man, Rose,” he said around a throat tight with love. “I want every second we have together. I don’t want to share.”

She looked at him, but remained quiet. Her brandy eyes were soft and her fingers gentle on his cheek as she waited for him to speak.

“But I see it now,” the Doctor continued. Swallowed hard and nodded. Allowed himself to see the timelines. Not so bad, staying in linear time, making sure to visit on a regular basis without too much time passing. “If you want to remain in linear time while we travel, we can.”

He kissed her, soft and slow.

“We’ll keep our family, all our family, together.”

“And still travel?” she asked, fingers tangling in his hair now. “We have to still travel.”

The Doctor scoffed. “Course! The TARDIS isn’t made for sitting in a garden or on a street corner.”

Rose giggled as if she were that nineteen year old he first fell in love with. And then she kissed him, and even his impressive brain fried when Rose ground her hips against his.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> NSFW smutty fun. Plus Donna, trips, a little conversation (and a little more action, baby). The calm before the storm.

**Prime Universe:**  
“Donna’s choice,” the Doctor said and scooped Aušra from where she crawled around the TARDIS grating.

Rose wiggled a little on the jump seat, trying to get comfortable. Her muscled protested and she shifted again with a mental huff at the Doctor for the pull to her muscles. Not that she complained much as she pulled and used those particular muscles.

The Doctor looked across the console at her and wiggled his eyebrows. _“You didn’t complain earlier, my hearts.”_

She snorted and tried to find a comfortable spot on the enhanced jumpseat with a real harness for her and Aušra. With so many hands on the controls, the TARDIS landed smoother than when it was just she and the Doctor, so Rose hadn’t yet needed to use the harness.

Still. Always good to have.

Aušra giggled and squirmed, trying to get down and back to her mad dash around the Time Rotor. The Doctor merely kissed her cheek and bounced her a little, whispering Gallifreyan endearments. With a final kiss to Aušra and a longer one to her, he handed their baby to Rose who carefully situated her in the sling. 

Where she immediately turned her head to watch the Doctor and Jenny twirl around the controls, setting their destination. She wanted out, that much was clear from the way she stretched and squirmed. But not while the TARDIS was in motion.

Brown eyes wide and mouth slightly open as she watched, Aušra occasionally cooed or babbled along with the Doctor. Definitely the Doctor’s child, Rose thought with some exasperation as she tried to settle Aušra in the sling.

He already began her TARDIS flying lessons, carrying her around the console as he explained what each knob and button and dial did. Aušra loved the TARDIS as much as they all did.

Rose eyed Donna, who stood beside the Doctor and Jenny. Instead of watching their movements, her gaze focused solely on the grating beneath her feet. She looked distant, lost in her own thoughts.

“It doesn’t matter,” she said softly, still staring at the grating.

“Course it does,” the Doctor said and bumped her hip with his on his way round the console. “How often do I give you the choice of where to land? This is it, Donna Noble.”

Donna snorted and looked up. “TARDIS choice,” she finally said.

Jenny laughed and continued to dance around the console. The Doctor looked up at her and Rose nodded. She tilted her head to catch Donna’s eye and gestured for her friend to sit next to her.

“Heart not in it?” she asked as the TARDIS began Her dematerialization sequence.

Donna reached out and ran a hand down Aušra’s head. The baby leaned into her aunt’s touch, babbled something that didn’t sound as if she tried to repeat what the Doctor taught her, but didn’t tear her gaze from Daddy.

“I thought this was what I wanted. I wanted to travel, it’s so exciting and new and breathtaking. New skies, new planets, places no one else has ever seen.” She paused and frowned. “Even with the truly ridiculous amount of running you lot do.” Donna shook her head and smiled softly. “But…”

“But you already miss Shaun.” Rose nodded knowingly.

It seemed all her friends found their calling. It was inevitable, she supposed. Just as she supposed, far into the future, her daughters would travel on their own in their own TARDIS’s. She preferred not to think about that. Not yet.

They just had (created— _whatever_ —semantics) Jenny, and Aušra was still so very young. Rose settled her daughter a little more to the side so she could see better, her hand automatically beneath Aušra’s bum to ensure steadiness. More for her own comfort than out of any real necessity.

Now that Rose thought about it, she supposed she and the Doctor needed to come up with some sort of reasonable Human-Gallifreyan/Time Lord age for leaving home.

She shuddered. Not today.

“I’m good at my job,” Donna whispered. “No one organizes like I do.”

Rose laughed but didn’t disagree to this very true statement.

“And I think this UNIT spa idea is spot on. And it’s not like I never see you.” Donna stopped and shook her head again. “But I choose Shaun.”

“Was that what this was?” Rose asked gently. “One or the other? Donna, you know it doesn’t have to be like that.”

“No.” She nodded. “I know. I do. It doesn’t. I can tell him about you and the Doctor and this magical ship.” She nodded again. “But what if he…what if he doesn’t understand?”

“Donna, he works at UNIT,” Rose told her dryly. “What more does he need to understand?”

“Right. Yes.” Another nod. “But what if he doesn’t understand me traveling with you?”

“Then he’s an idiot who doesn’t deserve you,” Rose said firmly. She patted Donna’s hand. “But I don’t think that’s going to happen.”

She looked so hopeful Rose almost laughed. “No. I think he’s mad for you. And I think when you tell him, everything will be just fine. The Doctor said he’d take him with us on a trip, yeah?”

Donna swallowed hard and licked her lips. “Yeah.”

“We’ll see, Donna. Now, let’s just see where the TARDIS landed, yeah?”

“Yeah.” Then stronger, “Yes. Let’s.”

They landed on a pristine golden beach. And the middle of a street party. They ran from tyrants and unexplainable creatures and people angry with change—or with the Doctor. Sometimes it was hard to tell.

“She’s much calmer than she was,” the Doctor commented from the stove a week after Donna joined them.

Rose snickered as Donna tried to feed Aušra and teach her to say Aunt Donna. Jenny—quite possibly the perfect big sister—tried to offer suggestions but the baby was in a playful mood and Donna went along with it.

Their own meal was in the oven and Rose stirred the vegetables in the skillet. She leaned back and rested her head on the Doctor’s chest, eyes closed in contentment at the feel of him against her. His fingers brushed the nape of her neck and she shivered.

“Think Donna will watch Aušra Susan?” he whispered along her jaw.

Rose turned her head just enough to press her lips to his chin. _“Oh, yes,”_ she thought to him in a good approximation of his enthusiasm. _“Kiss me again.”_

********  
The Doctor kissed his way down Rose’s body. Over each rib and along the curve of her belly.

“Why do you always do that?” she whispered.

Her hand rested on his head as if to stop him, but she didn’t. Simply curled her fingers into his hair, nails lightly scraping his scalp. The Doctor shivered and nipped at her hip.

“Hmm?” The Doctor looked up.

Beneath him, he felt his wife vibrated with need, the heat of her skin, the beating of her heart, the fragrant wetness of her arousal. Fingers still tracing the stretch marks that lined her belly, he waited, watched her. Felt her hum beneath his fingers and through their bond.

“Do what?”

“Touch my stretch marks like they’re something...I don’t know. Precious.” She tilted her head to look down her body at him, but her smile wasn’t embarrassed or self-conscious. Merely curious.

He frowned. “Did you not want me to?” His fingers stilled. “It doesn’t hurt when I touch you there, does it, Rose?”

“No.” She quickly shook her head and gave him a soft smile. Then she looked critically at her belly. “No, not at all. I just...well, they’re not exactly…pretty are they.”

“What?” he demanded. His cock ached to slip into the warmth of her body, but he sat up in indignation and stared at her open mouthed. _“What?”_

“I mean—”

He kissed her. The Doctor had no other idea how to make her understand. How to show her how he loved her, how he didn’t care what her belly looked like. No. No, he very much cared what her belly looked like and it was gorgeous.

Body blanketing hers, his hands slipped beneath her back to draw her closer. Rose’s legs wrapped around him and her hips cradled him to her and she kissed him back. Kissed him with all the love and want and depth of emotion they shared. Rough and sloppy and clawing at his back and desperation piercing their bond.

When the Doctor pulled back, breathing heavy, his control on the brink of snapping, he looked into her brandy-colored eyes.

“Rose, my hearts, how could you think anything of the sort?” He pressed his forehead to hers and though he couldn’t see her, the skin-on-skin telepathic bond flared brilliantly to life.

He clenched his jaw and stilled his body, scrambled frantically for his control. Rose’s fingertips glided up and down his spine and her hips rocked gently against his. He felt her love, the warm purr of need that arced between them, ever-present.

Poured all his love and acceptance for her through their bond and simply held her.

“I’m not ashamed,” she insisted.

Her hands flitted up his sides, nails scraping down his spine hard enough to leave welts, and suddenly he wondered how they had a conversation at all when what he really wanted was to thrust into her and lose himself in Rose.

“Well, maybe at first,” she added. “But we worked through that after Aušra was born. No.” She nipped his lower lip. “I’m just curious. You pay so much attention to my stretch marks. I want to know why.”

The Doctor reluctantly pulled back though he didn’t roll off her. He turned them onto their sides, fitted his body tight to hers. Slipped his hand down her thigh, a gentle caress along the back of her knee that had her whimpering, hips rocking against his. Urged her leg over his hip.

He still throbbed with need, but carefully shoved his own arousal into a box and hoped the lock stayed put. For the moment.

“Doctor?” Her body sighed into him, hips continued to roll against his.

He’d never keep control at this rate. Her hand ran along his shoulders and down his arm. Fingers twined with his.

Pressing his lips to her temple he said, “I knew…” No that wasn’t what he wanted to say. “I don’t…” Also not how to start that sentence.

The Doctor sighed ruefully and pulled back just enough to grin at Rose. “Rose, your stretch marks are a part of you. They’re beautiful and…and how could you think I care about that? After everything we survived, all the struggles we’ve been through, how could you think I’d care about what your skin looks like after you gave birth to our beautiful daughter?”

He cupped her cheek and brushed his thumb over her lips. “I love you. Your body is perfect, always has been always will be.”

Rose grinned widely, a hint of her tongue peeking from the corner. “You have no idea how happy I am you’re not most blokes.”

He scoffed and she grinned wider. Slipped a hand between them and caressed his cock, fingers dancing all too teasingly over his hardness. Trailed a finger up and circled it around the head of his cock. He forgot how to breathe.

“Now, my husband. Show me how much you love me.”

Then she pressed her lips to his and murmured his Gallifreyan name. Even if he preferred his ‘true’ name to remain buried for eternity, the chiming musical syllables were a beautiful sound on her lips he’d never tire of.

(Of course he did prefer when she screamed _Doctor!_ Or when she smiled softly and called him her husband.)

It wasn’t difficult, showing Rose how much he loved her. Needed her. Wanted her. And the Doctor didn’t waste any time in doing exactly as she asked.

His fingers brushed against her wetness, slid over her clit. Moved his leg higher to rest against her bum and brought her even closer to him. Rose shivered against him, breath a sigh of his name, hips arching closer. He ran his fingers lightly over her skin, a feather touch against nerves he knew cried out for more.

With infinite gentleness, the Doctor slipped into her. Her breath stopped and her body wrapped tighter around his and she clenched him, shuddering as she drew him deeper. For long, long minutes he stilled. Didn’t move, simply felt.

_“Rose.”_

His own skin exploding with the feel of her, the sense of her. His mind opened as far as it could, drew her into him with such intimacy it twisted round his heart and clawed-sighed-ached for more.

_“I love you, my Doctor,”_ she promised.

And then she moved. Rolled her hips and thrust against him. Legs intertwined, her foot pressed hard into his bum, he pounded into her—or she took him in, deeper and deeper. Not only his cock, but his mind. Mouth hard and messy on his, she kissed him and the Doctor embraced the intimacy of that, too. The trust and love and tearing passion that sparked through him.

Or her.

It didn’t matter.

Because Rose exploded against him, her orgasm a firestorm of need that rushed through her and snapped in a brilliant display of wordless cries and white-hot light. It burned through him and his fingers pressed hard into her bum, brought her closer as he continued to thrust into her wetness.

Again and again until the only thing in his mind, in his impressive Time Lord mind, was Rose.

_“My hearts.”_

His release emptied him, drained him so completely the Doctor wondered he still lived.

He held her tight to him, unwilling to let her go. Ever. Pulled her even closer. Rose purred in his embrace, boneless, her mind open to his in every way—opened their bond to its fullest and wrapped them in it.

The Doctor curved his lips against her skin and sighed. Perfect.

His.  
(Hers. Always.)

“It doesn’t matter what the future holds.” A promise, a vow. “I love you.”

“I love you forever, my hearts.” He returned her promise, her vow, and knew their bond, all aspects of it, would never break.

Which was when they landed on a planet that housed a barren library and fell into the past. Or future. Or…something like that.

********  
“One last trip?” The Doctor asked as he and Rose entered the kitchens

Aušra Susan bounced in his arms and reached for Rose—it was her new game, being passed back and forth between parents —or whoever she wanted to hold her for those fleeting moments. The Doctor didn’t mind, he loved when his daughter reached for him, that happy smile on her face, all baby teeth and babbling. And he loved when she cast that same smile on Rose.

“Yes,” Donna said soft but decisive. “I’m ready to head home. One more stop—preferably with no running,” she warned with a glare at his entire family.

He tugged on his ear. “I don’t purposely set out to make everyone run,” he muttered.

“Those are just the bits in between,” Jenny said with a giggle.

“Hmph,” he grumbled at Donna and set Aušra Susan on the floor where she proceeded to shoot across and underfoot. He’d never use the term ‘slowed to a crawl’ again. Not after seeing his baby race over every available surface.

“Donna.” Rose leaned against the counter where she prepared Aušra’s food. “Where would you like to see? Anything special?”

“Let me think on it,” Donna promised.

They ate in relative silence. Donna seemed preoccupied and Jenny read a book on Advanced Gallifreyan Astrophysics. He fed Aušra Susan, who made faces every time she opened her mouth for the spoonful of mashed bananas.

“These are top of the line pureed bananas,” he assured her. “Not that rubbish you buy in stores. I pureed these bananas myself.”

Aušra Susan looked unimpressed. But she ate them anyway and in the end that was what mattered. Hmph. Finicky child.

Later, new tie in place (thank you, daughter) he and Jenny waited at the controls for Donna to make up her mind.

“How about waterfalls? We can go hiking,” Jenny suggested.

“Too much like running,” Donna protested.

“That asteroid marketplace we went to with Martha?” Rose suggested.

The Doctor resisted a verbal protest but Rose snickered over their bond anyway. She knew he hated that place. He and Jack had almost been trampled by angry shoppers after some deal or other while she, Donna, and Martha enjoyed a private tour round the interior shops.

Plus Donna and shopping only equaled exhaustion. Even for him.

Donna didn’t answer immediately and the Doctor looked up from the controls. She squinted at him and crossed her arms. “What? What’s wrong?”

“I know that hair, spaceman.”

His hands went to his hair and combed his fingers through it. “What? What’s wrong with my hair?”

Rose ran her fingers through his hair before they joined the others and claimed she love the way it looked. What could possibly be wrong with his hair now?

Donna nodded decisively. “It’s _I just had sex with Rose_ hair. Don’t try to fool me.”

His hands dropped to his side and he scowled. His cheeks may have flushed. Maybe. Rose giggled and Jenny sighed.

“Please, Aunt Donna. Let’s not talk about it, yeah?” Jenny pleaded.

“You were gone barely fifteen minutes!” Donna insisted. “Gotta change my tie,” she mocked.

“I did change my tie,” the Doctor insisted and held out his tie for her inspection.

He said nothing more. But Rose’s mirth translated clearly over their bond. _“Time Lord,”_ she giggled.

The Doctor sniffed and straightened his beleaguered tie indignantly. _“If she doesn’t understand that as Lord of Time I can bend Time to my will, it’s best not to tell her.”_

Because he had, actually, ravished Rose in their bedroom. She changed Aušra Susan and put her in the playpen with her favorite fractal toy and closed the door, and he, honestly, changed his tie. And then Rose loosened his tie and he stretched time out even as he stretched Rose out on their bed.

Only a few minutes passed for the rest of the TARDIS occupants. It’d been much, _much_ , longer for him and Rose.

He winked at his wife and turned back to the controls. Which was when his pocket vibrated. Frowning, both at Donna’s continued snipping and his suit jacket, the Doctor took out his mobile. But that was in his inner jacket pocket, not his side pocket. Frowning harder, he dipped his hand into that particular transdimensional wasteland.

“Message?” Rose asked and stood from the jumpseat. She looked over his shoulder at the psychic paper.

_The library come as soon as you can. X_

“Signed with a kiss,” Donna snarked from beside him. “Who signs their psychic paper with a kiss?”

The Doctor frowned down at the paper but the wording disappeared. Much like Jack’s message when he and Rose visited New Torcellos—there and gone before either he or Rose managed to respond or clear the paper themselves.

“Uncle Jack?” Jenny offered not very convincingly.

“Not his handwriting,” Rose said and turned to the Doctor. She raised an eyebrow and waited but he shrugged.

“I have no idea. I don’t get a lot of messages on the psychic paper.” He shook it, as if that might make the message magically reappear. Hey, stranger things and all. It didn’t work.

“So, trip to this library?” Rose asked.

The Doctor looked up and smiled at her. She returned it, tongue poking at the side of her lush mouth. He leaned forward and pressed his lips to hers. In the background he heard Donna and Jenny groan. He ignored them both.

“My hearts.” He whispered the words across their bond and felt as well as saw her shiver.

“I don’t think we should go.”

The Doctor pulled back from Rose and looked at Jenny. “Why not?” He dropped his hand from Rose’s arm. Took a step toward his daughter. “Jenny?”

Just then Aušra Susan began to fuss. Rose rocked her, hand gentle on her back, but her whimpers turned into cries which turned into screams.

Jenny paled. She swayed and he leaped across the grating to his eldest. Terrified, he caught her before she collapsed to the flooring.

“Jenny?” He took her shoulders, eased her to the grating floor. “What’s wrong? What is it?”

“We shouldn’t go to The Library,” she whispered, voice hoarse and threadbare. “The planet is cursed.”

“How do you know that?” He frowned and brushed his fingertips over her temples but she shook her head. Turned away from him and refused him permission to enter her mind.

The Doctor frowned and tried to separate the wildly conflicting emotions over Jenny’s bond. But it was a jumble of fear and knowing and darkness. Beware the darkness.

He knew Jenny saw timelines differently than he did. Whereas he saw branched stretching out for every single being he encountered, Jenny literally saw the alternatives. The might be timelines.

Suddenly Rose stood beside him, one hand reaching for Jenny’s. Aušra Susan, out of the sling and in Rose’s arms, reached for her sister as well. She struggled and leaned, and finally Rose placed her on Jenny’s lap.

Aušra Susan curled into her big sister and whimpered.

“What’s wrong?” Rose asked. She took Jenny’s hand in one of hers, and with the other brushed wisps of blonde hair that fell from Jenny’s ponytail. “Jenny, love, what do you see?”

“How did you know The Library is an entire planet?” The Doctor asked at the same time. Then heard Rose’s question. “Yes. Right. What do you see, Jenny?”

Jenny turned blue eyes on him and the haunted look in her gaze made him shudder in trepidation.

“Darkness. Shadows. Death. And a path cut in two.”


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Library. One last trip for Donna before she tells new-beau Shaun who her friends really are. It does…not go as planned—the trip. Not the telling. She hasn’t even got to that part yet. Because things get wibbly-wobbly. And timey-wimey.
> 
> Translation: Timelines are about to collide—if you think you know what’s going to happen based on the episodes, I must warn you: You don’t.
> 
> (Had to cut this chapter in half, it was very long.)

**Prime Universe (Let’s start out here and see what happens...)**  
Over their bond Rose didn’t feel anything from him other than what she already knew—confusion, interest, a bit of a mystery. Another adventure.

And fear.

Absolute terror for Jenny. Fear for them, fear for what might happen. The TARDIS didn’t hesitate in landing, which Rose found interesting. She didn’t sound ill or reluctant or anything that indicated being forced against Her will to land in a particular spot.

Which begged the question: what did She know that the rest of them didn’t?

“What’s this library then?” Rose asked.

Aušra finally quieted, wore herself out until she dozed against Rose’s breast, and Jenny didn’t look quite so pale. She sat in the jumpseat in front of Rose, Donna next to her. Aušra continued to hold Jenny’s hand, even in sleep, and Rose swore they communicated on a level neither were aware of.

It warmed her, knowing her children had a bond beyond the human sibling one. Right now it terrified her.

“It’s a world,” the Doctor said, arms folded over his chest, gaze on Jenny. He stood right next to her and shifted slightly to take her hand. Rose hadn’t realized how badly she needed to contact until his long, cool fingers curled around hers.

“Literally, a world,” he continued. “The whole core of the planet is the index computer. Biggest hard drive ever...”

He trailed off and met her gaze. His eyes, dark and worried, flicked to Jenny faster than Rose could see but she knew. And didn’t have an answer for him. She rocked Aušra and scrambled for an answer.

This was it then, their big test.

If they didn’t go, if they left whoever asked for help on their own, and chose to protect their family, then what did that make them? The Doctor claimed all he wanted was a quiet life (street corner, two a.m., watching their children grow, exploring the universe with their expanding family. Running by her side.)

But Rose knew he was the only one capable of setting right all the very many things that often went wrong. After the Time War, the entire universe resettled slightly off kilter. Planets disappeared, beings time jumped who shouldn’t have that capability, and entire stars and their systems winked out of existence.

“We have to help,” she said eventually. Slow, reluctant, the words pulled out of her almost against her will. Her hand clenched around his.

But she’d be _damned_ if she ran. If she taught her children to run from danger just because they were scared.

(Absolutely, utterly terrified for her family.)

“I don’t want to go,” she continued. “Not if Jenny says otherwise. But if people are in trouble there or if they need our help...”

“You don’t know who it’s from?” Donna asked, voice uncharacteristically quiet. “Does the psychic paper always work that way? Just random notes on it with no explanation?”

“It’s limited in that,” the Doctor agreed. “But only someone with a linked paper can communicate. Right now, only Jack and Rose have their own psychic paper that’s linked with mine.”

“But the future, yeah?” Donna pressed. “Who knows what happens in the future. You might link your paper with—” she shrugged but didn’t finish the sentence. Waved her free hand to indicate _whoever_.

“Jenny.” The Doctor crouched in front of her and gently released her finger from Aušra’s hold. Took her hands in his. “Can you show me what you saw?”

Jenny hesitated then nodded. She brought his fingers to rest against her temples and mirrored the move on him. Rose watched, heart pounding frantically, mouth dry. She wanted to know what happened, wanted to see what her daughter saw. Stayed where she was.

Through their own bond, Rose felt the terror Jenny felt. The pain and hopelessness...and death. So much death. The terror of running through darkness and never finding peace in the light. Of sweating and terror and looking over your shoulder and still being trapped. Caught.

She felt that rip through Jenny until it squeezed both her hearts.

Squeezed Rose’s, too.

With slow, careful movements, Rose stepped closer. She built up a wall around her bond with Aušra. One brick at a time, just in case any of their terror leaked from Rose to the baby. Which seemed too little too late—much like locking the barn door once the horse already escaped.

Aušra already knew something happened. Something terrifying.

As if, despite being far too young for her time sense to have developed, she saw what Jenny did. The glimpse of the future, the hint of utter darkness.

Fingers cold and stiff, Rose laid hers over the Doctor’s. Felt the blue-silver of his bond flash brightly and entwine with hers, then open completely until Jenny’s deep purple thread pulsed. Too fast, too loud, too frantic.

Suddenly Rose didn’t care about learning what Jenny saw, only about calming her child. Not by taking away her gift, her visions, her ability to so clearly see alternate timelines. By showing Jenny her love. Her support. Her understanding.

Parenting, Rose was learning, wasn’t so much about knowing the answers as it was about understanding her children’s desires to know the answers.

Pretty big learning curve there. But worth it. Oh so worth it.

When Rose opened her eyes, Jenny looked not at the Doctor but up at her. Her blue-grey eyes held a slightly less haunted quality to them, and her face recovered a bit of its color. She inhaled deeply, not quite as shakily, not quite as fast, and slowly released it.

“You’re right, Mum.” Her voice didn’t sound as guttural, either. As broken. “We have to help. They all need our help. But...” she frowned again. “Please be careful. It’s...I don’t know.”

Jenny shook her head, breath catching. Rose sent all her love and assurance to her daughter, and slowly the tension in Jenny eased somewhat. “It’s darkness. Nothing but darkness. Don’t leave Dad’s side. Don’t leave him alone. Please?”

Her grip on Rose’s fingers tightened, but Rose only nodded. “I’ll be careful,” she promised. “I won’t leave his side. You know I’d never leave any of you.”

Jenny tried to smile, tried to nod or speak, but she only tightened her fingers around Rose’s. “And don’t believe every story you hear,” she added.

“Promise.”

The Doctor cleared his throat and bounced to his feet. Rose met his gaze and waited for him to ramble on about whatever it was Jenny saw but he only shook his head.

“I don’t know. It was dark. Very dark.” He stopped, ran a hand down his face, suddenly tired. “And hungry. It wanted to latch onto us.”

Rose shivered, and though she knew the Doctor felt her fear and foreboding, she pushed all her love across their bond. Love and acceptance of this life of theirs, and appreciation—he hadn’t shut her out, and that was possibly one of the greatest gifts the Doctor could’ve given her.

“But it’s like you said, yeah?” Donna spoke from beside her and Rose startled. She almost forgot her friend was there. “We have to help them.”

“Yeah,” Rose managed.

She absolutely did not want to land on this library. Or Library. Or whatever. A deep-seeded feeling in her gut told her it was a mistake—no worse than that. Landing there was going to change everything.

“All right.” He looked at her for a moment more, nodded slowly and took her hand.

Careful  
Love  
Stay safe  
Don’t leave

“Let’s land,” the Doctor added.

Aušra, still asleep in her sling, snuggled tight against Rose as she moved around the console with the Doctor. Jenny sat on the jumpseat next to Donna, looking as scared as Rose had ever seen her.

They landed with a thud, rocking back and forth as if the TARDIS materialized on a cliff’s edge. Rose did not want to think too hard on how apropos that sounded. She swallowed hard and looked at the Doctor.

“We’ll...” he trailed off and pressed his lips to hers, a hard quick kiss that spoke more than the words he stumbled over.

“Yeah.” She cupped his cheek, his forehead resting against hers. “I love you. Always.”

“And I you, my hearts.” The Doctor pulled back, eyes dark and hard and determined.

He wanted to say something more, Rose knew. _Stay here_ or _be safe_ or even _let’s leave_. But she knew as well as he did that if they didn’t exit those doors now, if they didn’t see who sent the message or what Jenny’s vision was about, they as good as let people die.

“I never wanted to be a hero,” the Doctor muttered.

Rose smiled and breathed out a laugh. “You were always the hero,” she told him. “You do what needs to be done no matter what. And that’s what I want to teach our children.”

“They can be heroes behind a desk.” But he grimaced as he said it.

Snorting, Rose shook her head. “They’d be as bored in two minutes as the mere thought makes you.”

“I have hives at the thought,” he admitted. “Hives, Rose!”

She kissed him again. Drew it out, made sure he felt and tasted and _knew_ all the love and passion and adoration and respect she felt for him. “Don’t do anything stupid.”

The Doctor didn’t reply—Rose didn’t expect him to. Stupid often went hand in hand with last minute plans and running for their lives.

So she added, “Come back to me.”

“Always, my hearts. Always.”

He left the TARDIS first. Then Jenny and Donna, and lastly Rose cradling a now-awake but still clingy Aušra. The library (The Library) was dark; it was the first thing she noticed. Dark and dusty and yet somehow it felt and smelled exactly like a library ought to.

Except it didn’t. Instead of beckoning with all the knowledge in the universe it repelled with death and anger and pain. Almost as if it laughed at them, the evil kind of laugh movies liked to make echo throughout darkened hallways.

“What century is this?” she asked and wondered why she hadn’t asked before.

The Doctor sighed and took her hand. “Fifty-first,” he admitted.

“Figures,” she muttered.

“How’s the TARDIS know when to land?” Donna asked.

Their voices echoed round the room, a large space with gorgeous skylights and parquet floor. Hand in hand, they walked out the large wooden doors. The dimly lighted corridors led them in a roundabout manner, past huge floor-to-ceiling bookcases and banks of computer terminals in polished wood.

“No dust,” Donna commented as they walked by a large, door-less room that held banks of computers and little shops. “Very clean, these library people.”

They circled back in the eerie silence, by the room the TARDIS parked in, then outside. The open balcony overlooked a gorgeous city in mid-afternoon. A very futuristic city, Rose thought, still clutching the Doctor’s hand as if the darkness he and Jenny spoke of might devour him right beside her.

“Huh. Not very library like,” Donna said in that same soft, almost reverent voice. “More like those cities of tomorrow they’re always going on about.”

“The TARDIS brought us to the right time,” Jenny said.

Her voice shook and when Rose reached out for her, she shied away. Wrapped her arms around herself and huddled down as if she were cold. Or scared.

“How’s that again?” Donna asked, voice shaky. She cleared her throat and inched closer to the group.

“The TARIDS is connected to the psychic paper, too. Psychic Herself. It’s how She translates languages directly for you,” the Doctor said. His hand tightened on hers. Rose did not let go. “The TARDIS is a very complicated event in time and space all on Her own. Even I don’t understand everything She does.”

“So we’re in the right time,” Rose said and looked back at the doorway they just walked through. “Where is everyone?”

The Doctor frowned. “We’re near the equator,” he guessed and looked left and right again, then down at the several dozen stories below them. And up once more. “Oh, biographies! I love me a good biography.”

His enthusiasm, though strained, echoed around them, through the harsh breeze. He didn’t look as excited as his voice implied. Even the Doctor had trouble affecting his mask of keen interest. 

“Course you do. Always a death at the end.” Donna tried to joke. It fell flat.

“Everything must come to dust. All things. Everything dies,” Rose told her.

A cold gust blew round her—seriously nothing like invoking creepy wind. Rose frowned at her words, an echo of something she should know. Tried to brush it off, but the wind wrapped around her and seeped into her bones.

Beside her, the Doctor stilled. She glanced at him; he’d paled, freckles standing out starkly against his skin. Across their link pure shock, the frozen, stunned kind, vibrated in discordant noise.

“Rose?” The word barely sounded like her name, a soft, strangled sound of hope and fear and memory.

Memory. It teased her, there, so close right there, but she couldn’t grasp it.

“I’m fine,” she tried to assure him.

Mostly believed it herself. Jenny stood close enough to touch and the Doctor squeezed her hand so tightly Rose lost feeling. She didn’t care. This place didn’t just scare it, it worried her. What could they possibly find here that changed everything?

_(From the corner of her eye she saw it, creeping along the balcony, its jaws wide open.)_

“Biographies, eh?” Donna asked into the silence.

Rose blinked and whatever she thought she saw vanished. Donna picked up a book and tried to act unaffected.

The Doctor shook himself, and though he looked no better, refused to release her hand, he snatched a book from Donna’s grasp without looking at either Donna or the book.

“You need a good death.” He tried—and failed—to inject some humor into his tone. “Without death, there’d only be comedies.” He looked to her again, his eyes as deep as all of space.

_(I can see the whole of time and space. Every single atom—)_

“Dying gives us size,” the Doctor added and cleared his throat. “Besides, these books are from your future. Don’t want to read ahead.”

“No one should know their future,” Jenny said. She sounded a little looser, less tense, almost herself. No, not quite, but she wasn’t as closed off and frightened. That was something.

“Nothing’s moving,” Rose said in a desperate bid to change the subject.

_(But it did, and she turned to catch the thing that crept along, but there was nothing there. Probably just her imagination, wild and unfettered with the silence here in the Library.)_

She looked at the sky and the buildings atop buildings atop yet more buildings with sky trams? Abovegrounds? Whatever the opposite of an Underground was.

“Look.” She nodded to the empty, quiet buildings. “There’s no life here. The transports are still, there’s no noise. Not a bird, not even a beetle.”

“Maybe he landed on a Sunday,” Donna said but she stepped closer. Wrapped her arms around herself.

“Naa,” the Doctor scoffed. But Rose felt his unease. That nervous tick of something coming. “I never land on Sundays. Sundays are boring.”

“Sundays are for dinner with Grandma Francine,” Jenny injected. But she, too, stepped closer, kept to the tight circle they created. Out of the shadows but oh so careful not to cross them. Not to touch. Rose frowned but said nothing.

Rose ran her free hand over Aušra’s head. Kept her close to her breast. Not that the baby seemed inclined to move from where she fisted one little hand in the sling and sucked on her other.

“I rest my case.” The Doctor looked at her, but his lips didn’t curve into a smile and the tight clutch of his fingers around hers made Rose even more nervous. “Let’s find a computer. See where everyone is.”

They retreated inside, where Aušra started whimpering again. Rose rocked the baby, pressed her lips to Aušra’s head, sang her favorite Gallifreyan song (more ode to nature than lullaby). Nothing worked.

Aušra fussed and whimpered and cried and despite their bond, Rose had no idea what was wrong with her. They entered the room nearest the balcony and the Doctor instantly went to work on a computer.

Jenny took Aušra’s tiny hand and kissed it. “I’ll keep you safe, little one,” she promised. “I won’t let _anything_ tear apart our family.”

It worked for a moment, but then the baby clung to Jenny’s fingers and wound her other hand in Rose’s hair.

“Anything, Doctor?” Rose asked.

But her voice was still hushed, her heart still pounded, and the trepidation that crept along her spine spread like cold fingers—out and out and further out, reaching and stretching.

“I widen the parameters to any kind of life,” he said and turned to face her. Pocketed the screwdriver then took it back out. Gripped it tightly like a lifeline. “A million, million. Gives up after that. A million, million.”

“A million, million life forms?” Rose repeated.

“There’s no one here, how can there be a million, million?” Donna demanded. Her voice echoed harshly in the reading room.

“Not people, then,” Rose said. “Not the kind we’re familiar with. So what sort of life?” She looked around the dim room. “What’s living in the shadows?”

“Not us,” Jenny whispered. Despite the hard coldness in her voice she gently released Aušra’s fingers from hers. “Mum? Get ready to run.”

“I’m always ready to run,” Rose assured her. But gripped Aušra tightly and sent a quick bit of thanks she had the Doctor reinforce the baby’s sling. For just these sorts of occasions. “Whoever needs our help isn’t here, Doctor.”

“No.” He stepped back from the computer and glanced at her. “We either arrived too late or something else happened—there’s no one else here.”

The Courtesy Node scared Rose nearly to death. In the absolute silence of the spacious room on this empty planet, its voice echoed like a gunshot. Just as loud, just as dispassionate.

“For God’s sake run?” Donna repeated, voice trembling. She glanced at Rose, body braced. “Can you run with the baby?”

“Oh yes,” Rose promised. If it meant keeping her family safe, she’d run carrying both Aušra and Jenny and dragging the Doctor behind her.

“Any other messages, same date stamp?” The Doctor asked. He slipped his screwdriver from one hand to the next, nervous. No. More than that. Cold stone scared and ready to call the TARDIS from the other room in a heartsbeat.

Thankfully he finally installed the auto-recall. For just such emergencies.

_“Count the shadows. For God’s sake, remember, if you want to live, count the shadows. Message ends.”_

“Shadows?” Jenny gasped. “It lives in the darkness. But what lives in the shadows?” She shuddered and looked up. “Dad, what’s that mean?”

“There’s something alive in the shadows,” the Doctor said and pulled her close. Grabbed Rose’s hand and yanked her to him as well. “What I don’t understand is where the psychic paper message came from if the shadows are the only other things living here.”

“If whoever sent the message isn’t here,” Rose began and looked around. The sun was definitely on its downward arc and it seemed like it set extremely quick. Typical. “Maybe we should return to the TARDIS.”

“Yeah,” the Doctor agreed. “Let’s. Stay close. Don’t touch the shadows.”

“What are they?” Jenny demanded. “What’s causing death in the shadows? And what’s casting the shadows? The sun is coming in directly through the skylight—where’s the shadow coming from?”

_“Reminder. The library has been breached. Others are coming. Reminder.”_

“Quick as you can,” the Doctor said and pulled her along. Rose willingly went. She didn’t count the shadows, important though it might be. She ran.

“TARDIS first, then explanations!” the Doctor promised and pushed her along. “Run!”

Half a dozen steps from the TARDIS, a high-pitched whine signaled the others that were coming. They stopped, stared in shock at the door. With no other warning, it blew out toward them.

Rose flinched and curved her body over Aušra, protecting her from dust and debris and whatever haunted this place. She felt the Doctor cover her body as well, arms around her, hands cradling her and Aušra. Heard him yell for Jenny. Jenny’s answering confirmation.

In the immediate aftermath of silence and fear, Rose looked up. Dust motes danced in the sunlight and she wondered if those were the million million life forms. But they didn’t only live in shadows.

So what did?

“All right?” the Doctor asked. He ran his hands down her arms, over Aušra who clung to Rose but stared in wide-eyed silence at her daddy. The Doctor pressed a kiss to the baby’s head then to Rose’s lips.

“Jenny?” His head jerked to the side, hand cupping the back of Aušra’s head, thumb pressing just slightly to her temple. Rose followed his gaze and saw Jenny nod.

“I’m okay, Dad.” But she stepped closer. “Mum?”

“I’m fine, love,” Rose tried to reassure her. Mostly failed.

“Donna?” The Doctor asked. “Donna, you okay?”

“Yeah,” Donna said. Cleared her throat. “Fine. Little dusty.”

“We need to leave.” Jenny’s voice broke. “And so do they.”

Rose didn’t even have the chance to ask who _they_ were. Because just as Jenny spoke, six space-suited figures stepped through the blast hole. The leader paused and seemed to look straight at them. Rose had the unearthly feeling she was being assessed, as if this leader hadn’t expected to see them here at all.

The being did something to the helmet and suddenly Rose saw a face.

“Hello, sweetie,” the woman said with a grin evident in her voice.

Neither grin nor greeting was aimed at her, but at the Doctor. Despite the situation, Rose felt a thrill of jealousy.

“Get out.” The Doctor straightened and stepped in front of her and Aušra.

Jenny stepped next to him, arms crossed over her chest, and a fierce scowl on her face. Rose didn’t hide behind anyone, but with Aušra in her arms and the sheer wrongness of this place, and Jenny’s odd vision, and the TARDIS so close yet so far, she stayed where she was.

Donna stepped beside her, and Rose took her friend’s hand, squeezed it as reassuringly as she could manage. Then held Aušra tightly and prepared to run.

With deep breaths, even as the Doctor spoke, Rose locked away her fear and opened herself to her children. Her bond with the Doctor beat ever-present and reassured her even as he blocked off his own fear.

“All of you,” he continued in a cold commanding voice. “Turn around, get back into your little rocket and fly away. Tell your grandchildren you came to the Library and lived. They won’t believe you.”

Jenny nodded, physically and along their bond. She was just as scared, just as frantic to return to the TARDIS and away from this place but determined, fiercely determined to protect her family.

The leader didn’t seem to care what the Doctor’s words were or how authoritatively he spoke. She took off her helmet and grinned. “Pop your helmets, everyone. We’ve got breathers.”

Aušra whimpered again and Rose cradled her youngest to her chest, pressed her lips to the baby’s head and sent whatever soothing thoughts she could to her. She also slipped a hand into her pocket and gripped her own sonic screwdriver.

Just in case.

“Fan-bloody-tastic,” Rose muttered. “Explorers.”

“Expedition?” the Doctor repeated what one of the men said. “You’re an expedition?”

“My expedition,” the same man said in a pompous voice Rose knew all too well—entitled people. They always survived. “I funded it.”

The Doctor marginally relaxed. “Worse than explorers,” he muttered and stepped back, stood next to her. “Bloody archaeologists.”

“Professor River Song,” the woman said with a smirking laugh. “Archaeologist.”


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Fracturing of Timelines: Or A Fork in the Road.

**Prime Universe (ish)**  
“You really need to leave,” Jenny whispered.

Rose touched her daughter’s back and Jenny jumped. She looked down at her, blue eyes wide and anxious and slightly unfocused as if she saw the branches of time more clearly now than ever. Rose shivered at that look—she’d seen it in the Doctor’s eyes only once or twice but it terrified her every time.

Then Jenny blinked and looked at Professor River Song again.

“Jenny?” Rose whispered.

“ _We_ really need to leave now. Like right now.” Jenny shuddered hard. Rose stepped beside her and watched her daughter, helpless to do anything for her. “It’s already too late. They know we’re here.”

The Doctor shooed them away as if the group of archaeological explorers were no more than pests. “Yes, yes, Professor, lovely to meet you,” the Doctor said quite insincerely.

He glanced over his shoulder at Jenny, concern making his usually brown eyes burn with barely banked fire, then back at the group. But the strain in him stiffened his movements. He talked a good game, but Rose knew him all too well. She knew what he hid beneath the fast talking, devil may care persona.

And right now he hid panic.

She didn’t need any marital bond or telepathic link to know that. Rose knew him far too well for him to hide anything.

“She’s right—you need to leave,” he continued in that same hard, too-fast voice. “Before it’s too late.”

He looked at Jenny again, then to Rose, reassuring himself. It burned along their bond and she nodded in as much reassurance as she could manage. That didn’t stop her from holding Aušra tighter; the baby whimpered but didn’t squirm.

His eyes softened, just the slightest. He didn’t need to ask, the question was clear without the verbal confirmation: _Are we doing the right thing? Saving these people with our family in danger?_

Rose concentrated on their bond and hoped he read her affirmation as clearly as she read his unspoken questions. _“Yes. Yes we are. We have to.”_ Otherwise the lesson they taught their children was to run at the first sign of trouble and turn their backs on those who needed help.

His lips turned slightly upward in a parody of a smile, but it was something. He looked back at the group.

“So.” He clapped his hands together. “As you’re leaving, and you are leaving right now, set up a quarantine beacon. Code wall the planet, the whole planet. Nobody comes here, not ever again. Not one living thing, not here, not ever.”

“Stop!” Rose shouted. Everyone froze and stared at her as if she lost her mind. But Rose took a cautious half-step forward and nodded to the woman who _had_ moved. “Don’t move. What’s your name?”

“Anita.”

“Anita, please don’t move,” she repeated. “Don’t cross the shadow.”

“What’s wrong with the shadow?” Anita asked. But she paused, slowly set the foot that took a step forward behind her and leaned away from the semi-darkness.

Behind her, Rose heard the Doctor bickering with the remaining team. But Rose didn’t look away from Anita. “Step back. Don’t take one step forward. The shadows are alive.”

Anita looked properly scared now, no doubt the smartest of the group, and did as Rose said. She slowly backed away from the shadows and stood perfectly still in the small circle of sunlight.

“I didn’t think they allowed babies in the Library,” the professor said with a curious tilt to her head. “Even on Sundays.”

“It’s not Sunday,” Jenny and the Doctor said at the same time.

Donna snickered but Rose noted she, too, carefully stayed in the light. From the corner of her eye, Rose thought she saw something. Movement? She whipped her head around, but Donna stood very firmly in the light and hadn’t moved.

Donna eyed her curiously, but Rose only shook her head. What was that? That...

Nothing moved around her. Not so much as a breeze teased her shirt. But Rose swore she saw…something.

“I’m Mister Lux’s personal...everything.” A young beautiful woman popped up beside Rose. Rose let out a tiny yip and glared at the girl who looked apologetic but timidly determined. “You need to sign these contracts agreeing that your individual experience inside the Library is the intellectual property of the Felman Lux Corporation.”

“Pft,” Rose scoffed. “We just told you the shadows are alive and you’re worried about intellectual property?” She eyed the papers. “Huh, they still use paper in the 51st century. I’d have thought they moved on from that.”

Then she shook her head at her ridiculous thoughts. The shadows were alive, the Time Ripples converged here, and she was worried about paper.

“My family built this library,” the entitled man blustered. “I have rights. “

“You have a mouth that won’t stop,” Professor Song muttered.

Rose almost smiled but her muscles refused to obey. She rocked Aušra and looked back at Anita who very sensibly stayed perfectly still. The other woman watched them with wide, dark eyes. Assessing them in a new light, Rose thought, and wondered how the other woman ended up on this expedition.

“You think there’s danger here?” Professor Song asked the Doctor.

Something about the woman niggled the back of Rose’s mind. It wasn’t a familiarity with her; she knew she never met Professor River Song before. The woman made an impression she was unlikely to forget. It was something else.

Perhaps it was Jenny’s warnings or the Doctor’s fear. Or her own instincts. Her own need to see her family safe and far, far from this place. This library of death. _Wow_ , her inner voice snickered but even that sounded afraid, _overdramatic much?_

But they did the right thing, she knew they did. Helping was never wrong.

“Something came to this library and killed everything in it,” the Doctor snapped. “Killed a whole world. Danger?” He shrugged but the movement was taut and he didn’t leave Rose’s side. “Yeah, could be.”

But Song brushed him off. Rose wanted to shake the other woman who shrugged and shook her head. “That was a hundred years ago,” the professor said dismissively. “The Library’s been silent for a hundred years. Whatever came here’s long dead.”

“It’s not though,” Jenny whispered but her voice echoed over the cavernous room like a prophecy. “It’s not dead. It’s still here, silent and waiting. And it’s not happy we’re here.” She tilted her head. “No…it _is_. It’s happy. It…he…they…they want us here…all of them, waiting and watching, so hungry, so eager...”

“Jenny?” Rose asked and stepped closer to her daughter.

But Jenny only shook her head, still staring, unseeing, into the shadows.

“Willing to bet your life that everything’s dead, then?” The Doctor asked and ran his hand down Jenny’s arm in what was no doubt meant to be a soothing gesture.

“Always,” Song said cheekily.

“Your choice.”

“It’s not, though, was it?” Jenny asked in that same oddly loud whispered. “It was never your choice. You never had a choice. The choice. You never knew who you were because you were told who you are.”

There was silence, the still creeping silence that resonated with secrets and prophetic foretellings and things unmasked that should never be uncovered. It was, Rose thought, even worse than the sheer stillness of a dead planet waiting to devour them.

“Who are you?” Song asked. Demanded with the shaking ferocity of the one whose secrets just spilled onto the pavement.

“Jenny Tyler,” Jenny said immediately. “But you’re not who you think you are. Or say you are. You were abandoned here, weren’t you, River Song? You were left in this century and in this life as if time couldn’t be rewritten.”

She swayed now, and Rose grabbed her arm. “Jenny,” she said, frantic. _“Jenny!”_

Once again the Doctor caught Jenny before she collapsed and gently lowered her to the ground. “Shut it off,” he pleaded. “Please, Jenny, close it off. Don’t look, Jenny. Not here, not now.”

Rose crouched beside her daughter, uncaring what lived in the shadows. Aušra whimpered again and tried to make herself as small as possible against her, and Rose cuddled her close. But she was too scared herself to do more than hold her baby even as she tried to soothe Jenny. Donna moved and when Rose looked up, she swore she saw...

“Jenny, love,” Rose whispered, eyes on her eldest. She held Aušra close and maneuvered so she could hold Jenny as well. “Look at me. Focus on me.”

Jenny shuddered, rocked back and forth, breaths gasping. Fear closed her throat and Rose looked up at the Doctor.

 _“Doctor?”_ It was as much a question of what was wrong as it was a plea to save their daughter.

“Please, Jenny,” the Doctor begged. “Please block it. Like we practiced.”

He met her gaze, dark and terrified, and a shudder of foreboding raced down Rose’s spine at the bleak fear in his eyes. Aušra’s cries grew louder and Rose tried her best to soothe her child. Both her children.

“I can’t,” Jenny managed. Her voice cracked, on the verge of tears. “The Time Ripples are worse here. They overlap so much, can’t you see it? Can’t you feel them?” She clutched her head tighter, rocked against the Doctor. “It’s here and it wants to change things. It wants to devour my family. I won’t let it.”

“Yeah, I feel them,” he admitted.

“I won’t let it,” Jenny whispered. “I won’t let them take my family. I won’t let them kill you. I won’t let them change things.”

She chanted this over and over and her voice, so monotonous yet so fierce, chilled Rose straight to her soul.

“Jenny,” the Doctor said in a soft, calming voice and somehow managed to block out Jenny’s continued whisperings. His fingers brushed her temples and he held her head still. “Please, Jenny. There are too many variables here. Block them off, Jenny. Please.”

“I won’t let it,” Jenny whispered. “I won’t.”

“Like we practiced.” He talked over her, soothing and calm despite the tremor in his hands.

“My head is killing me,” Jenny whimpered. Gripped her head until her knuckles turned white and tore at her hair.

( _My head...it’s killing me..._ A chill gripped her limbs and for an eternity of a beat Rose thought she saw exactly what her Time Lord family did— _all that is, was, and ever could be…_ Rose shook her head, tried to latch onto the memory or dispel it or whatever it took. She needed to focus on her daughter. Her scared child.)

“Jenny,” the Doctor’s frantic voice cut through that memory. “Jenny!”

_(I want you safe…)_

Rose shifted on the inlaid floor, dust moats danced in the sunlight she carefully stayed in, and she shifted Aušra to better see Jenny. She reached for her big sister, tiny frantic hands grasping for Jenny’s. Jenny leaned against the Doctor and looked horribly pale, waxen and sweaty and scared.

Licking her lips, Rose reached out and carefully gripped Jenny’s hand, untangled it from her blonde ponytail, now in disarray, and tried to remain calm.

It didn’t work.

“Jenny, love, _please_ ,” she whispered.

“Jenny! Jenny, look at me!” the Doctor called.

She heard the echo of his frantic cry over their bond and the deeper shuddering of two Time Senses clashing even as they tried to meld and calm. To lock away and shut off.

“Who are you?” Song demanded again.

Rose looked up to find her watching them with a curious, confused tilt to her head. Like she tried to puzzle out a problem—one she thought she knew the answer to but her calculations didn’t work out properly.

“Doctor?” Song asked and took a tentative step closer. “Doctor, what’s going on? What’s wrong with her?”

Rose stood and growled at the other woman, blocked her advance. Automatically shifted Aušra to safely hide her and used her own body to hide Jenny. Donna shifted from where she stood guard over Rose’s family to better block them from curious, prying eyes.

The pair of them stood as a barrier between the Doctor and Jenny and these people. This woman who acted as if she knew more than she revealed.

“Don’t come near my family,” Rose snarled. Ready to fight and defend her own.

Song stilled immediately, eyes wide and stunned, mouth open in shock. “Family?”

“How’d you know he’s the Doctor?” Donna demanded. She folded her arms over her chest and glared. Donna had a very intimidating glare. Even Professor Song looked taken aback at it. “How’d you know who he is but not the rest of us?”

Behind her, Rose felt the Doctor helping Jenny block the time lines. He told her once, ages ago in a different body, they were impossible to shut off—he always saw branches of timelines, innumerable possibilities of every creature in the universe.

Here, now, Rose wondered if they still saw that or if the seemingly stronger Time Ripples obscured them.

Slowly, oh so slowly, Rose felt the tense string of Jenny’s bond relax. In the shuddering silence of the Library, with strangers watching them as if they were a show, Rose felt Jenny slowly block her visions. Her body eased as she and the Doctor worked together to close off her Time Sense. Felt Jenny herself ease, her pain lessen.

“Jenny?” Rose asked over her shoulder. She did not look away from Professor Song. “Better, love?”

“Yeah,” Jenny managed. Then stronger, “I’m all right, Mum.”

“Mum?” Professor Song choked out a laugh. “ _You’re_ her _mum_?” She narrowed her eyes at Rose. “Who are you?”

“Who are you?” Rose shot back.

Behind her, she heard the Doctor stand, help Jenny stand as well. And for a long, uneasy moment, everything stilled. Waited.

“Lights!” The Doctor suddenly called, shattering the moment. “Form a circle of lights. Many as you can get. Keep them shining in a circle around us and whatever you do don’t cross the shadows.”

Rose stood off against Professor Song even as the other woman ordered her team to do as the Doctor instructed. She really wanted to call Jack and see if he had any memory of a Professor River Song from the 51st century.

Big universe and all, sure, but if this woman knew the Doctor...then again, 51st century Jack didn’t know the Doctor. Rose sighed but didn’t move. Kept her emotions blocked from Aušra, her worry and fear as blocked off from Jenny’s more advanced telepathy as best she could, and tried not to bombard the Doctor with questions.

She was really quite proud of herself, actually. Even if a throbbing headache beat mercilessly behind her eyes. And worry and fear churned in her stomach.

“Pretty boy, you’re with me.” Professor Song stared at Rose as she said it but the dismissal was clear.

“I think we’ll all stay here, sunshine,” Donna shot back.

Song glared at Donna but no one moved. Finally she relented. Nodded slowly. But the tension around her eyes and mouth remained. And her eyes flitted between Rose and the Doctor. The Doctor and Jenny. Jenny and Rose.

Only Donna was left out of her scrutiny and Rose wondered why.

There…in the corner of her eye…but she refused to look away from Professor River Song to see what it was…

“Thanks,” Song said softly while her team busied themselves around them.

“For what?” Donna demanded.

Professor Song spared her a glance then looked at the Doctor again. Rose did not like that look. Not at all.

He kept an arm on Jenny’s as she swayed, but Jenny quickly found her feet. Rose finally tore her gaze from Song and looked at her daughter. Jenny nodded that she was okay, but the Doctor didn’t move. Hovered near her for another moment then guided her to where Rose and Donna stood guard.

Jenny slipped to her right, between she and Donna, while the Doctor took up his usual position on her left side. Bracketed by her family, Rose felt marginally better. But it was a very slim margin.

“The usual,” Song said softly, eyes still flitting between the three of them, always the three of them. Never Donna. “For coming when I call.”

“That was you?” The Doctor frowned and looked around the room. “The message on the psychic paper was from you?”

Professor Song’s team clearly wanted to know what was going on, but they did what the Doctor ordered and Professor Song instructed. Except Lux who hovered, not helping, around the woman, Miss Evangelista, who seemed to want to help but was continually rebuffed.

“You’re doing a very good job, acting like you don’t know me,” Song said and tilted her head again. Her hair, which looked as if it had a mind of her own, bounced slightly in its ponytail. “I’m assuming there’s a reason.”

Once more she looked between Rose and Donna, lingered on Jenny. Aušra sucked on her fist and reached for the Doctor who gently lifted her from the sling and kissed her forehead.

He murmured to her in High Gallifreyan, promises to see her safe. Bounced her slightly and pressed his cheek to hers. Rose glanced at them, father and daughter in an intimate moment of comfort, and warmth spread through her at the tender sight. No matter what happened here, she’d remember the image of the Doctor and Aušra like this forever.

Then she returned her gaze to Professor Song who looked as if her world shattered at her feet. More importantly, she looked as if she understood what the Doctor whispered. As if she understood High Gallifreyan.

“Go to mummy,” the Doctor said in English and handed Aušra back to her. “She’ll keep you safe.”

Aušra clung to the Doctor, but Rose settled her back in the sling, where she whimpered and fussed. Reached for the Doctor, then Jenny, then clung to Rose.

“A fairly good one,” the Doctor said to Professor Song as if he hadn’t just held his daughter. “Actually, yes.”

Rose brushed her hand against his. He hadn’t taken it, and she sensed he didn’t want to show these strangers how much she meant to him by taking her hand—a sign, among humans at least, of intimacy and affection.

But she needed that connection and Aušra, still clutching Rose’s shirt, hid the contact well enough. His fingers threaded with hers and she sighed at the touch. His thumb brushed over her wedding ring and the bands tightening around her heart lessened just the slightest.

 _“Life with a time traveler, eh?”_ She pushed through their bond. It hurt to concentrate enough to do so, but Rose needed that added assurance as well.

 _“Maybe she recognizes the TARDIS and knew I’m the Doctor.”_ He did not sound convinced. She glanced at him from the corner of her eye and knew he saw Song’s recognition of High Gallifreyan as well.

_“I don’t think that’s it.”_

“Okay, shall we do diaries, then?” Professor Song sighed and whipped out a blue notebook. “Where are we this time? Er, going by your face, I’d say it’s early days for you, yeah? So, er, crash of the Byzantium. Have we done that yet?”

None of them said a thing, simply watched her. Song frowned and looked down at her diary. “Obviously ringing no bells. Right.” She flipped a few pages. Rose tightened her fingers around the Doctor’s. “Oh, picnic at Asgard. Have we done Asgard yet?”

Rose’s eyes narrowed. Touching, holding hands, he couldn’t keep his emotions hidden no matter how he wanted to; he didn’t recognize the diary, didn’t know what Song talked about, and certainly didn’t like what it implied.

He tightened his hand around hers even further and Rose knew, despite his trying to hide it, that the Ripples bombarded him. They beat at him from every side, pounding and hammering at his Time Sense.

At the contact, and despite Song’s diary-reading, a bit more of the tension knotting Rose’s shoulders eased and she breathed deeply. One hand cradling Aušra head, she held onto the Doctor as if one of the Time Ripples might tear him away.

And she was deathly afraid that was exactly what was going to happen.

“Obviously not,” Song said and drew out the words. Then she shook her head. “Blimey, very early days, then. Whooh, life with a time traveler. Never knew it could be such hard work.”

Rose winced as her own words to him echoed back. The Doctor squeezed her hand and telepathically pressed his lips to her cheek—her forehead—the corner of her mouth—the spot along the nape of her neck that made her weak.

“Families, eh?” Professor Song closed her book. “I never knew you to travel with families. Entourages, sure, you love a good audience. Couples even.” She grinned as if they shared a joke, but it was gone before the smile fully formed. “But families? Thought you had a thing against domestic.”

“Who are you?” Donna demanded but in the quietest of voices.

Song smiled but it looked hollow. Superficial. Her eyes flitted over them again, as if memorizing their faces or ferreting out their secrets. “Look at you.” She stepped closer. Tilted her head. “Oh, you’re young.”

“I’m really not, you know,” the Doctor said evenly.

Song stepped forward. She glanced at Rose, took in Aušra who buried her face in Rose’s shoulder, the physical closeness between her and the Doctor, and frowned harder.

“No, but you are. Your eyes. I’ve never seen you this...this _happy_.” She raised a hand and cupped his cheek. “You’re younger than I’ve ever seen you.”

“I’d appreciate it if you stopped caressing my husband,” Rose bit out, body vibrating with anger and jealousy, and yes, okay, more jealousy.

Professor Song stilled and dropped her hand as if it was on fire. “Husband? _Your_ husband?” Her voice cracked, the words broken shards of disbelief. She brought her eyes, wide and disbelieving, back to the Doctor.

“Sweetie, I had no idea.” Song tried again, but her joviality sounded more hurt than anything.

Not hurt. Shocked, devastated.

“I thought you were _my_ husband,” Professor River Song said. She stepped back and looked as if her entire world quivered around her like it was seconds from shattering.

Rose understood exactly how she felt. Because those were quite possibly the last, the absolute _last_ , words she expected anyone else to say.

The Doctor uttered a squeaky little yelp of utter skepticism. Donna almost snickered but it ended on her own gasp of disbelief. Jenny stepped forward and crossed her arms over her chest, planted her legs in a wide stance, and glared.

Rose felt sick.

“Who are you really?” Rose asked. Demanded, since the question didn’t come out nearly as calmly as she wished.

Then again, she thought she was allowed to be a little demanding, considering the last fifteen minutes or so. Her calm disappeared into another galaxy.

“Professor River Song,” the other woman said. But it sounded route, as if her lips were numb and her mind only supplied the words because it was repetitive.

Then the woman blinked and narrowed her gaze. “Who are you?”

“If you know the Doctor,” Rose shot back, “as you claim to, then you know who I am.”

Song shook her head. “That’s just it,” she whispered, broken and sad and unsteady. “I don’t. I thought I did.” Her gaze flickered from Rose to the Doctor, lingered there, and back. “Clearly I don’t.”

“Rose Tyler.”

Professor Song watched her for several long minutes. Rose didn’t have to ask to know she thought through all she _believed_ she knew about the Doctor. Or studied about the Doctor, Rose didn’t know. Then Song’s eyes narrowed.

“What?” And there was no mistaking the shocked-stunned-flabbergasted look on Professor Song’s face now. She blinked in rapid succession and shook her head. “But.” Song started, cut herself off, tried again. “But you died at the Battle of Canary Wharf.”

Rose shuddered at the reminder. She had. The Doctor saw to it that her name, hers and Jackie’s, were on the death roster. Technically she was dead, according to Earth records.

“And you?” Song demanded with a look to Donna. “Who are you?”

“Donna Noble.”

Again the pale, stunned look. Clearly the professor recognized Donna immediately. Song’s eyes jumped from Donna to Rose, to the Doctor. Over Jenny, lingered on Aušra. “Donna Noble,” Song whispered, and yes, this time it was in absolute recognition. Swallowed hard.

“I do know the Doctor,” she said.

And the honesty in those five words stabbed Rose.

“I know him in his future. His personal future.” Song swallowed. “But this man, the one with a child—”

She cut herself off again. Took a breath and looked up at the ceiling. Her smile was sad and broken.

“Children,” she breathed. “The Doctor I know doesn’t have a family. Will never have a family.”

No family. _No family._

The words replayed in her mind and froze Rose in place. She gripped Aušra to her until her baby whimpered and squirmed. Rose eased her hold but didn’t back down. Whatever Professor Song thought she knew was not the present—the life—Rose lived.

And she’d be damned if she let it slip away because of Time Ripples or hungry shadows.

Dona snorted. “Don’t be stupid. He has the biggest bloody family in the universe, sunshine. Maybe not blood, but we’re his family.”

“What happened?” It wasn’t the Doctor who demanded to know, but Jenny. She stepped forward, toe to toe with River Song and snarled like _(a wolf protecting her pack)_ the warrior she was born. “What happened to my family? What happened to us that you claim Dad doesn’t have one?”

“No,” Rover Song said quietly. “You don’t understand.” She shook her head, hair bouncing in wild, animated contrast to the paleness of her face and the lines bracketing her mouth. “He doesn’t have a family. A biological family. He’s never had children—not since Gallifrey.”

“Not that _you_ know,” the Doctor snapped. “Maybe you studied the wrong books, _professor_.”

His words sounded like a shot through the room. His hand held hers as if Rose were his only lifeline. She clung to him, her anchor in this storm. Rose tried to reach out, to soothe him through their bond. To be soothed in return.

But her mind refused to calm and other than a slight brush over the strong silver-blue of his link, she couldn’t do more than cling to his hand.

That silver-blue warmth swept over her, however. Wrapped her in his love and Rose felt herself relax. Slightly, just a bit. But enough to order her mind and open herself to him—and Jenny and Aušra.

Felt her family’s answering reassurance in return.

“Did I tell you any of this?” He sneered in obvious disbelief. “Or did you look it up? Study me like a good little archaeologist? It’s not like I hid my presence from the universe or erased my existence from books and stories and songs.”

Song flinched but didn’t back down. “Look,” she snapped. “I know you don’t know me, and I can’t even begin to tell you how much that hurts. But you have to trust me on this. I know you. And not just from what you’ve done for the universe. From who you are to me.”

She stepped closer, slightly around Jenny who continued to glare and shifted to block the other woman’s way. “And I’m sorry, I really am. But—”

The shriek of a telephone cut through the room. It shattered the moment and galvanized the Doctor to move. Work. Get them out of this place alive and in one piece.

He fiddled with the computer and spoke a mile a minute. Rose watched, but wasn’t fooled. She didn’t have to feel the deep, dissonant vibe of their bond to know how worried he was. This was when the timelines split. Or rippled out. Or did whatever it was they were doing.

This was what it all boiled down to.

“It’s the epicenter,” Jenny confirmed from beside her.

She hadn’t moved since the telephone rang, echoing throughout the room, and the little girl’s appearance on the computer monitor. She stood next to Rose, a warrior protecting her own. Pride straightened Rose’s spine.

This was her daughter. _Hers_. It didn’t matter they never truly tested Jenny for human genetics. _It didn’t matter._ And she’d be damned if her daughter did all the protecting.

If Jenny was a wolf defending her pack, Rose was the Alpha she-wolf, a mother defending her cubs and her mate.

“This is it. This is where the timelines converge.” Rose looked at her and Jenny frowned. “Or diverge.” Jenny shook her head. “I’m not sure. It’s very muddled.”

“How?” Rose asked. Cleared her throat and searched for information. They needed a plan. “Can we stop it?” She tore her gaze from Jenny to the Doctor. “Or is it already too late?”

Jenny didn’t say anything. She didn’t have to. Simply turned haunted blue-grey eyes on her.

A sob caught in Rose’s throat and she hugged Aušra tighter to her. Took a step closer to Jenny and took her eldest’s hand. But then she kissed her daughter’s temple. Smoothed the hair falling from her ponytail. 

“I love you, Jenny. And I swear to you, I’ll make sure we get out of this place alive.”


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Library’s infected with death and if these people think she’ll simply let them have their secrets and put her family’s life in danger they’ve never met Rose Tyler. Oh. That’s right. They haven’t. Because time’s a fickle mistress, isn’t she.
> 
> Or universal train through time and space. Part 2.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (I think I separated and marked everything well enough, but just in case there’s slightly more explanation at the bottom.)

**Prime Universe**   
_“I love you, Jenny. And I swear to you, I’ll make sure we get out of this place alive.”_

Jenny’s eyes, so like her first Doctor’s, swirled with blues and greys and the myriad colors of the universe. That depthless knowledge and the ferocious fight to survive. It burned over the blue-ish purple of their bond and galvanized Rose even further.

She’d protect her family. No matter the cost.

“I know you will, Mum.”

“Jenny.” River Song spoke up finally. She had followed the Doctor then stopped, halfway between the terminal he worked on and them—indecisive. Rose had a feeling the woman was rarely indecisive.

“The Doctor. He had a daughter named Jenny. Donna.” Song looked at Donna with a new light gleaming in her eyes. A sad, understanding, and very confused light. It only made Rose hate this entire situation more. “Donna named her, he said. But she died.”

“I did die,” Jenny said calmly.

But didn’t leave Rose’s side. She folded her arms over her chest again, legs braced. With her black boots and black jeans and t-shirts in various colors she reminded Rose so strongly of her first Doctor. It punched through her, the warmth and love and sheer affection she felt for her daughter.

“And Aunt Donna did name me.” Jenny nodded to Donna but didn’t look away from Song. “But what you know, Professor Song, is not what happened. Because you only know one small part of the story.”

It shocked Rose when Song simply nodded. “That’s usually the case with any story, isn’t it?”

“What’s _your_ story, Professor?” Rose asked through dry lips. But her voice carried strongly to the other woman, who watched her with troubled, assessing eyes.

“River,” she whispered. “Please call me River.”

Rose nodded, one slow movement of her head. “All right. River.”

The tension didn’t loosen in her shoulders. Aušra steadily whimpered against her chest and the Doctor’s end of their bond screamed worry and confusion and a franticness to fix anything and save them all. But Rose stood straight and ready to defend her life, her husband, and her children with her last breath.

“In the end we’re all just stories, yeah?” Rose said.

River snorted but didn’t disagree.

“What’s CAL?” The Doctor asked into the silence of the Library.

“I don’t know,” Lux immediately said into that same silence.

Rose forced her attention back to the danger at hand. She wanted to question River. Wanted to know what the other woman knew. At the very least quiz her until she was satisfied River told the truth.

Deep in her soul, Rose knew River did—she didn’t know how, but Rose knew River spoke the truth about knowing the Doctor. And being married to him.

Long before she met the Doctor, Rose learned not to trust surface images. Learned to dig deeper. With a bone-deep knowledge, Rose knew that digging deeper into River Song’s story would be a fascinating—if devastating—tale.

“What’s causing that?” River called to the Doctor from where she stood, seemingly rooted to the spot. “Is it the little girl?”

Rose moved then, legs stiff with tension and stomach churning. She walked from the circle of light she and Jenny stood in to stand beside Doctor. _Her_ husband. She wanted to look over her shoulder at River but didn’t. Barely resisted doing so.

“But who is the little girl?” The Doctor watched at her, eyes dark and assessing. 

She felt his concern, his worry, and yes. Even his confusion. Most importantly, Rose felt his determination. She nodded at him, waited for the flick of a smile, and breathed a little easier. Just a little.

Maybe coming to this planet, this Library, wasn’t the best idea. Just to prove a point? That despite being a family, having a family, they couldn’t do what was needed? No. They’d done the right thing.

Helping was never the wrong choice.

“What’s she got to do with this place?” The Doctor asked, eyes still on Rose’s. “How does the data core work? What’s the principle? What’s CAL?”

“Maybe,” River said and turned from them to the rest of the group. “We should ask Mr. Lux.”

“CAL.” The Doctor demanded, whirling on the other man. “What is it?”

Crossing his arms over his chest Lux shook his head. “Sorry,” he said sounding smug rather than sorry, “you didn’t sign your personal experience contracts.”

“Mr. Lux,” the Doctor snarled. Took several menacing steps closer. Lux barely flinched. “Right now, you’re in more danger than you’ve ever been in your whole life. And you’re protecting a patent?”

“I’m protecting my family’s pride,” Lux shot back.

“Well I’m not betting _my_ family’s life,” Rose snapped.

Without looking at anyone, she walked to the Doctor, carefully extracting Aušra from her sling as she did so. Pressing a kiss to her daughter’s forehead, she handed her to him. He willingly took her and cradled their child gently to his chest where Aušra curled into his arms.

The sight tightened around Rose’s heart and spread fierce determination through her.

Rose smiled at the Doctor, ran a hand over Aušra’s head, and spun around. She stalked to Mr. Lux and grabbed him by his space suit collar. Yanking hard, until his shocked face was level with hers, she glared at him. Waited another beat to ensure his full, wide-eyed attention and cooperation.

“Whatever killed this whole world? Guess what—it’s still here.”

Lux struggled but Rose tightened her grip and yanked harder. She was Estate raised by Jackie Tyler and no two-bit spaceman with an entitled attitude and unlimited credit stick was going to stand in her way of seeing everyone lived through this.

“Stay still,” she growled.

Lux let out a very undignified squeak and did as she commanded.

“If you think I’m going to let you and your _intellectual property_ get in the way of me saving my children, you’re out of your damn mind, buddy,” she snarled at him, furious and terrified. A pit of dread spread through her stomach and made her feel sickly hot. “Now tell me what you’re doing here or so help me, the killer shadows will be the _least_ of your worries.”

Lux looked properly terrified and tried to step back. Rose once again yanked him closer and growled. “Don’t start with me. I’m not putting my family’s lives on the line because you want to keep secrets.”

“Oh, I like her,” River said from somewhere behind Rose.

“All right, listen,” Lux said very quickly. “It’s taken three generations of my family just to decode the seals and get back in.”

“There was one other thing in the last message,” River said.

Rose looked at her from the corner of her eye. Though River still looked pale and she certainly didn’t look the least bit happy, she did look determined. Rose respected that.

“That’s confidential!” Lux managed.

Rose yanked again and growled.

“Oi, space idiot,” Donna said from beside River. “You heard the lady. Button it.”

_(Was there something...Rose didn’t dare look away from Lux again, but she thought...swore she saw something...)_

“I trust this man with my life,” River said slowly, looking from Rose to the Doctor then back to Rose. “With everything.”

“You’ve only just met him,” Lux snapped and yelped again when Rose yanked on his suit.

“One more inane word...” Rose threatened. 

Lux, eyes wide, nodded.

“No,” River sighed. She looked at the floor now and pinched the bridge of her nose. “He’s only just met me.” Then she took a deep breath and shook it off. Rose admired that about her, too. “One last message,” River repeated.

“Four thousand and twenty two saved. No survivors,” Jenny said and looked around the room. “Yes, we heard the same message.”

“Four thousand and twenty two is exact number of people who were in the library when the planet was sealed,” River admitted.

“But how can four thousand and twenty two people have been saved if there were no survivors?” Donna demanded.

“That’s what we’re here to find out,” River admitted.

“And so far, what we haven’t found are any bodies,” Lux added, still hunched over by Rose’s grasp.

She slowly loosened her fingers and released the man. He got the message; she had no doubt about that. Only hoped the message stayed with him. It was difficult to tell with these types. Even when she was in the other universe and Pete acknowledged her as his daughter and the fervor finally died down, there were always those sorts.

Entitled snobs.

“You won’t find bodies if those people were saved,” Jenny pointed out.

“No bodies, no,” Rose said.

She stepped away from Lux and felt the Doctor at her back. Reached for his hand, a needed assurance. He pressed a kiss to Aušra’s cheek and handed her back.

“But how do you save four thousand people without a trace?” Rose wondered as she repositioned Aušra back in her sling. She fussed and reached for the Doctor, but once back in she clung to Rose’s shoulder again.

“There were no records of them anyplace after here?” she asked and cuddled a little with Aušra. Rose needed the comfort, too. “No mention of them?”

River shook her head and Lux reluctantly did so as well.

She looked to the Doctor, hoped he had an idea or two as to what happened. But he eyed the shadows with as much trepidation as he had before. “Daleks, aim for the eyestalk. Sontarans, back of the neck. Vashta Nerada? Run. Just run.”

“Run?” River repeated. “Run where?”

Rose heard it beat through him— _run. Run. Run!_ It urged him to move, to act, to keep them all safe…beating louder and louder until it eclipsed all else.

“If these Vashta Nerada are in the shadows, is there any place to run?” Rose asked.

“They’re not just in the shadows,” the Doctor said, still staring into the darkness. “They are the shadows. The shadows are alive with them.”

Something in his words told Rose he didn’t speak only of the Vashta Nerada but…more. Other. She didn’t know what, didn’t know how to decipher or interpret what he meant from what he said. Only that it terrified her.

“And it’s getting darker,” Rose whispered into the silence.

She eyed the TARDIS, knew no one would blame her if she took the baby and hid inside Her doors. But she couldn’t do that. What sort of example did that set? That was _not_ the sort of woman, the sort of mum, she was. Wanted to be.

So she swallowed and pushed her absolute terror down and turned to the Doctor. He stepped closer. Took her hand, and the physical contact brought their muted bond, dimmed by fear and frenzied activity and the pressing darkness, to life.

It was obvious what he wanted. _“Rose...please.”_

But she shook her head, determined. Rose licked her lips and held Aušra closer. The Doctor’s other hand came up to cup the back of her head and their little girl snuggled into his touch, still whimpering, but no longer crying.

“We have to save them,” she said, eyes still locked with the Doctor’s. “If we still can. Or find them at least—find out what happened to them.”

Rose stopped, swallowed. Licked her lips and pushed on. “We have to get everyone off this planet. If those four thousand are still alive, we need to find a way to rescue them, too. We have to help, otherwise why bother?”

He nodded, eyes old and troubled. And dark, so very dark. But he held her gaze for another long moment. Something flickered in them, there and gone before she got a bead on it. “This is an index point. There must be an exit teleport somewhere.”

Rose narrowed her eyes at Lux.

He held up his hands in surrender. “Don’t look at me, I haven’t memorized the schematics.”

“Doctor,” Donna said, voice hopeful, “the little shop we saw before, when we walked outside. They always make you go through the little shop on the way out so they can sell you stuff.”

The Doctor squeezed her hand once more and carefully released it. “You’re right, Donna. Brilliant! That’s why I like the little shop.”

Rose snorted. Jenny managed a grin. Even River looked as if she understood; which bothered Rose, that thorn of jealousy, and she didn’t much like herself because of that. She also didn’t much care.

She was jealous another woman claimed to have married her husband. Jealousy was definitely warranted.

It didn’t take them long to run back the way they came, through brightly lighted corridors with lamps in everyone’s hands. Rose clasped Aušra to her and easily kept up. But something nagged the back of her mind.

_(It was there, on Donna’s back... clinging and feeding...)_

“Why do you need an access point?” Rose asked as they entered the shop area.

He didn’t answer her. Purposefully ignored her, and then Rose knew. Stupid, bloody idiot. He took them the long way around with a flimsy excuse to try and fool them. She looked at Jenny who also seemed to realize what her father planned.

Arms crossed over her chest, Jenny planted her booted feet, once more so much like Rose’s first Doctor Rose stifled a snicker, and glared at her father.

The Doctor, not being quite the idiot Rose currently pegged him to be, placed Donna on the platform first.

“It’s a teleport. Stand in the middle. Can’t send the others, TARDIS won’t recognize them.”

“What are you doing?” Donna demanded, eyes swinging from the Doctor to Rose.

In that instant, she, too, realized what happened. But before she had the chance to say anything more—or step from the platform—the Doctor activated it. Donna disappeared without another word.

“If you think—” Rose began.

“Rose, please,” he begged.

He crossed to her in two long strides and clasped her shoulders. Rested his forehead to hers and simply breathed her in. She felt him, the touch flaring through their bond. He didn’t block her, quite the opposite. He opened himself to her and let her see everything.

His fear, his lack of plan, his love for her. _“My hearts, I need you safe.”_

She refused to give into his touch, to the fear clouding his mind. Stepping back she folded her arms over her chest and glared. “Forget it.”

He sent her jumbled images of loss and love and pleading over their bond. The rapid images bombarded her and gave her a headache with their hurriedness. Rose didn’t budge.

“You may have fooled Donna with your little stunt,” she told him but didn’t step away. Stepped into him, serious but unwilling to keep so much distance between them, not now with all that happened in this Library.

Knowledge she never wanted.

“With all this running to trick her into the TARDIS.” She didn’t add that they’d been standing right next to the TARDIS and there had to be easier ways to trick someone inside. “And boy do I not want to be you when she sees you again, but I know you better.”

“What about Aušra—?” His voice broke.

Rose narrowed her eyes and tilted her head slightly. Looked down on him despite their height differences. “Don’t. Don’t try to pull the baby card, Doctor. We agreed.”

“Agreed to do everything together, to help together,” he whispered, more a breath then stated words. “Live together. Raise a family together.” The Doctor nodded. “But Rose, I can’t protect you here.”

She stopped the barrage of words that wanted to tumble out—that she wanted to keep her children as safe as he, but if she left him now Rose feared what he’d do. And even knowing the TARDIS would keep Aušra safe from anything and everything, Rose couldn’t leave her baby inside, alone.

And she couldn’t leave the Doctor, out here, alone either. Even with Jenny.

“You can’t see it, can you?” she whispered just loud enough for him to hear. For Jenny to, when she stepped beside them. Her family making a family decision. Together. “You can’t see timelines here, can you? It’s too muddled.”

“The Time Ripples,” Jenny added in confirmation. She rubbed her temples and Rose knew blocking off her Time Sense had dulled the pain but only slightly. “They’re messing everything up. It’s all over, so many potentials.”

“I just—” He stopped and tugged his hair. “I can’t lose any of you. It’ll destroy me. And I can’t see anything here; it’s one overlapping nightmare after another.” He ran a frustrated hand down his face and grimaced in pain.

Rose swallowed but her throat refused to work. “I’m not leaving you, Doctor. _My Doctor_.”

“Rose.” He stopped, eyes bleak and broken but nodded. “Never again,” he said.

He kissed her then, cupped her face and kissed her as if they were alone. She opened to him, kissed him back, hard and hungry and desperate. Her skin tingled and her heart pounded and Rose didn’t care who watched.

The Doctor pulled back, held her for another moment. “Rose.” He breathed sharply in through his nose and turned to Jenny. “Jenny—”

“All or nothing, Dad.”

The Doctor sighed and stepped back just enough to put arm’s distance between them. He glared at her, with no real heat, and ran his hands through his hair, making it even wilder than usual.

“Damn stubborn women…” He pointed an accusatory finger at her. “She gets that from you.”

River snorted. Rose merely raised an eyebrow.

“All right,” he sighed, defeated. “All right.” He took a breath and looked up at the ceiling. “I teleported Donna back to the TARDIS. If we don’t get back there in under five hours, Emergency Program One will activate.”

Rose shuddered. She knew he kept it. Maybe not the exact Emergency Program that took her from the Game Station to London, but Emergency Program One always signified extreme danger. Once activated, the TARDIS was programmed to take Her passengers back to their current time stream.

She didn’t know if the TARDIS would ever move after that—last time Rose needed a big yellow recovery truck to open the Heart. Did their sonic recall function work from that physical and time distance? Could Jack and Martha fly her back here to pick them up?

When they got out of here, and they would if she had anything to say about it, Rose’d ask.

The Doctor looked at his sonic and frowned. Shook it, as if that ever helped, and looked at the readings again.

“Take her home, yeah,” River cut in and stepped closer. “I know how it works. We need to get a shift on.”

“She’s not there.” The Doctor shook his sonic again.

“What do you mean?” Rose asked. Her fingers flexed on Aušra and she immediately relaxed her grip. The baby continued to whimper and reach for the Doctor, but didn’t scream. “How can she not be there?”

“I should’ve received a signal.” He looked up at her, eyes boring into hers. “After—after the Game Station, I programmed the TARDIS to signal me if there’s a teleport breach.” He said the words to her but spoke to the sonic as he fiddled with the settings.

_(It clung to her back...)_

Jenny whirled to a nearby node. “Donna Noble,” she demanded. “There’s a Donna Noble somewhere in the Library. Locate her position.”

“There is no Donna Noble in the Library,” the face said.

“I thought you said you enabled the use of transmit,” Rose said from his side. Something happened and it tugged deep in her gut.

“I did.”

“Did the TARDIS not recognize Donna then?”

“No. I mean I don’t know.” He growled in frustration and looked as if he wanted to throw the sonic across the room. “She should’ve.”

“Can you call Her? The TARDIS, I mean,” Rose clarified through blood that roared in her ears and the constant sound of her heart pounding with fear.

And something else. It hovered in the air. Not the Vashta Nerada. Something deeper.

“Can you call the TARDIS here? Or will the Vashta Nerada latch onto Her, too? Like the Weeping Angels.”

“I don’t know,” he admitted. _“I don’t know!”_

He whirled to look at her, eyes wild, clutching his sonic screwdriver, his fear leaping from him to her and back again. Aušra whimpered louder now, and Rose frantically tried to block off her link with the baby but knew she failed.

“We should move,” Jenny said, voice echoing oddly in the room. “The sun’s setting.”

“Set up the lights in here. Big circle, many lights as you can.” He looked at Jenny. “Come on. Help me disable the computer. If there was an energy surge right before everything cut out, maybe that’s what happened to the four thousand.”

“They were transmatted.” Jenny nodded and used her screwdriver to pry open the back of a computer. “Do you think that’s what happened to Aunt Donna?”

“Hold on.” Rose handed her lantern to Anita and made sure she and Aušra were still encircled by light. She dug out her mobile and scrolled through until she found Donna’s number. It rang.

And rang.

And rang...

******  
Splinter Universe**  
“Do you hear that?” she asked Doctor Moon. “The telephone ringing. Do you hear that?”

Doctor Moon shook his head. “I don’t.”

She picked up the phone, but no one spoke on the other end. “Hello?”

Silence.

“What do you hear?” Doctor Moon asked.

“Nothing,” she admitted. “There’s nothing but silence.”

******  
Prime Universe**  
“Do you hear that, Gramps?” Donna asked as she walked into the kitchen.

“What, sweetheart?”

“The ringing. The telephone ringing.” She looked at her mobile but no call registered. The house phone didn’t make a noise, and when Gramps looked at his mobile, it, too, remained silent.

“Are you ready, Donna?” her mum asked as she picked up the keys from the hook.

Donna blinked. She thought…had she been here? No, she’d been in…the library. No, that temp job ended ages ago. And what the bloody hell was that ringing?

The ringing stopped. Donna blinked at her mum and took the keys. “ _I’ll_ drive.”

“I’m just saying,” her mum repeated for the fifth time as they waited at the intersection. “It won’t take long. Just turn right. We’ll pop in and see Mr. Chowdry so Suzette can introduce you.”

_Make the choice again, Donna Noble, and change your mind. Turn right.  
_  
“What? What did you say?” Donna demanded. She looked around, but of course no one else rode in the car with them. Just her and her mum and that voice…it didn’t sound like Sylvia’s.

“I said,” Sylvia sighed in even more exasperation than she normally used. “ _Turn right_ and Suzette can introduce you to Mr. Chowdry.”

_Change your mind. Turn right. Turn right, Donna Noble!_

“Well, let me tell you, sweetheart,” Sylvia spat and the endearment meant little to either mother or daughter. “City executives don’t need temps, except for practice.”

“Yeah,” Donna sighed.

******  
Donna’s Universe**  
“Yeah,” Donna sighed. And turned right. “Suppose you’re right.”

_Turn right, and never meet that man. Turn right, and change the universe._

******  
Prime Universe**  
“I do want you!” Martha screamed at him. “Jack, why can’t you understand that?” She stopped, swallowed. Tried to control herself and find the right words. “I want you. But I don’t know what sort of future we have.”

“Martha.” Jack grabbed her shoulders and looked her dead in the eye. Her heart fluttered and she thought maybe thi—

********  
Jack Harkness felt it in the blink before it happened. He had a lot of experience with Time, not as intimate a relationship as the Doctor of course, but he knew when things went sour.

Came from being a fixed point. Probably.

And in the breath before it all did, went sour that was, in the moment between arguing with Martha about New York and their future and whether or not he stayed in New York or returned to London. Whether she wanted him to stay or return. Whether she wanted _him_.

Because Jack knew what he wanted. He had a lot of time, decades, to figure out not to waste time. And he wanted Martha Jones.

In that moment in between _Martha_ and frantically scrambling to find her when she disappeared right before his eyes, Jack Harkness wondered—did time change a permanent fixture, a permanently fixed point in time? Or did it flow around him?

******  
Donna’s Universe**  
The world was hot. Hotter than normal, and that was saying a lot. New Pyrovile was constantly hot, with active volcanoes unleashing magma that flowed over a good portion of the world.

Donna of the First House Noble struggled with the basket she carried as she lugged it up the hill. Hill being a generous term, but when one carried a basket full of wheat to the miller’s, any incline was inconvenient.

Better than living in the south. Better than crossing the Great Pumice Canal and walking up those magma hills.

She paused to wipe sweat from her lip but not too long. She knew what happened when she didn’t keep to the schedule. Not that Pyros cared whether their human cattle were fed. But she did. And she swore on her life when she took position of Speaker she wouldn’t let her village starve because she was late and the millers closed before curfew.

So Donna, eldest daughter of the First House Noble, picked up her sack of wheat again and finished the journey to the millers. She didn’t know why the grindstone wasn’t more centrally located, but then she also didn’t understand a lot of why Ceswican lay situated as it was.

The layout was far from expedient.

However, asking questions led straight to being the next shipment to the Vents, and no one wanted that. So Donna carefully blocked her thoughts from any of the Pyros or their human mind-slaves and kept walking, head down.

******  
Prime Universe**  
Aušra Susan cried.

Constant whimpers of pain and fear and each one pierced his hearts like a knife. Despite Rose’s rocking and pressing her close, offering a bottle he kept the perfect temperature in the baby bag he kept in his pockets or her favorite stuffed animal, his baby reached for him.

“Aušra Susan,” he whispered as he passed her and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “I’m working on it, little love. I’m working on it.”

Her fear exploded over his mind. And who wouldn’t be terrified in this situation? Fear and longing and panic. Sheer unfiltered panic that he’d disappear. Vanish from her sight—not consumed by the Vashta Nerada, he thought as he tried to sooth the child.

Literally pop out of existence. Vanish. Disappear. No…her child’s mind had no word for it, but the Doctor knew. Aušra Susan thought, with a sickening instinct Jenny also seemed to possess, he’d die and the entire universe along with it.

“I’m flattered, little one,” he whispered and stroked down her cheek. Pressed his lips to the top of her head again. “But I’m not as important as all that.” 

The Doctor looked up, caught Rose’s gaze and squeezed her hand. He had no words, what he felt for her encompassed the entirety of his existence and simply refused to fit into neat little words. Of any language.

“I know,” Rose whispered, words breaking.

With another kiss to her head, the Doctor returned to work. Aušra Susan twisted and turned in Rose’s arms to keep him in sight.

He wanted to hold his baby, but he needed to find a way to get them all out of this. He understood her fear. Oh, did he ever.

He shouldn’t have run from the TARDIS to transmat Donna back to the TARDIS. Why had he? Rose and Aušra Susan could be safe in there, Jenny, too, if she wasn’t as stubborn as her mother. The Doctor honestly didn’t know why he’d done so, but felt compelled to do so; to keep Donna safe.

Or was that to ensure she was transmatted? He didn’t know the answer to that, either.

Swallowing the sick churning in his gut that told him he was responsible for this—he was the reason his family was in danger and Donna was now missing—the Doctor tried to form a plan to get them out of here. All of them. Alive.

“You’re not.” Rose’s voice shot through the chaotic noise of the room.

The Doctor looked up at her from where he and Jenny tore wires from the main transmat computer. Rose’s understanding shone as clearly on her face as he felt through their bond. It covered him, eased the edges of his own panic and self-loathing.

“This is not your fault, Doctor.” She stepped forward, careful to keep in the light. “We decided this together and together we’ll get out of here. Yeah?”

He swallowed and nodded. “Yeah.”

With each passing second he worked harder and faster and more franticly and begged the universe to grant him just a bit more light. Just a little bit more. _Please._ What he needed was more information, more understanding about what happened here in the Library.

Aušra Susan continued to wail and he and Jenny worked faster, in tandem as if they dismantled computers in a race against the clock every day.

“Can you access the computers to override the failsafe?” Rose asked over Aušra’s wails.

“Something’s blocking it,” the Doctor grunted. “Something’s blocking my sonic, too.”

He didn’t wait for a response but ran around the back of the second terminal and ripped open the base, exposing the typical mess of wires. Some things never changed.

“Can you please shut that child up?” Lux snapped from where he stood near the Doctor but certainly did not help.

He stopped trying to break the computer’s surprisingly thorough encryption and glared at the other man. But Rose stepped forward, juggling baby, bottle, stuffed toy, and her own pulsing fear.

“She’s scared,” Rose snarled at the man.

The Doctor almost smiled at her but the sonic wasn’t working and _why wasn’t it working_? Where was Donna? And what in all the levels of hell this universe had to offer was going on in this library?

“And if you had any sense,” Rose continued, striding right over whatever else Lux had to say, “you’d be terrified as well.”

“If you’re not going to help, Mr. Lux,” River said from where she hovered, between him and Rose, “then please shut up before I duct tape your mouth shut.”

“You have duct tape in your pack?” Rose shook her head. “Never mind.” 

“Jenny?” The Doctor called from where he hovered over the back of the second computer. Why was it not responding? “I need your screwdriver.”

“She turned right.”

 

***Donna’s Universe** is what really should’ve happened when the Doctor died in _The Christmas Bride_ if Donna Noble hadn’t been there to tell him stop, given _The Fires of Pompeii_ took place in the past. It’s a bit timey-wimey but I wanted a different take.  
 ***Prime Universe** is the verse I created throughout this series.  
 ***Splinter Universe** is Doctor Who and especially _Turn Left_ canon-verse.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Universes collide...or cross over...or merge...no, it’s definitely a timey-wimey collision. Of sorts.

**Prime Universe**   
_“She turned right.”_

“What?” Rose asked stepped forward. She stopped at the edge of the circle of light across from the terminal Jenny worked on. “Jenny, love, what did you say?”

Jenny shook her head and stared at her, those blue-grey eyes distant. “What? Screwdriver, yes.”

“I’m impressed you can run with the baby,” Anita said from beside her. Her voice quivered but didn’t break.

Rose reluctantly tore her gaze from Jenny. Who turned right? What the hell did that mean? She looked at Anita and managed a smile for the other woman. For all of them.

“If it means living another day, I can run with anything,” Rose said with a slight laugh. “I’ve been running with the Doctor since we met.”

River half laughed, half snorted. Rose had an idea what it meant, of course, and when River spoke at least it was with humor. “That man can run.”

“Oh, yeah, and who is he?” One of the men asked. Dave—Other Dave?—asked. “You haven’t even told us. You just expect us to trust him?”

“Don’t be an idiot.” Rose snapped. She glared at the man and took a menacing step toward him. “Do you really think he’d do anything to endanger his children?”

Other Dave stepped back. Eyes wide, he looked properly chastised and shook his head. “No, suppose not,” he muttered.

“He’s the Doctor,” River said as if it were that simple.

Jenny looked at her, studied her for a moment with a curious look Rose couldn’t decipher. Then back to the Doctor. “What were you like before you met Mum?”

“What?” Rose heard the frown in the Doctor’s voice from where he tried to rewire the computer and reverse the transmat. “Jenny, later, yeah?”

“But before Mum…before her, after the Time War…” Jenny shook her head and met her gaze. “Yeah. Sorry. Later.”

“And who is the Doctor?” Lux asked in a disbelieving voice.

Rose tore her attention from her family and glared at the man. She wanted to smack him. Or let River tape his mouth closed. The man’s attitude really didn’t belong in a life or death situation.

River looked at her, a heavy sadness in her eyes. Rose held her gaze even as she tried to soothe Aušra who absolutely refused to be soothed. She fussed and squirmed and reached for her daddy, but no matter what Rose did she didn’t calm.

“Shh, Aušra,” she whispered and kissed the child’s head. “It’ll be okay. We’ll fix it, I promise. And we’ll all get out of this.”

Swallowing down her own mistrust and fear and nauseous churning of understanding she didn’t want to admit even to herself, Rose watched River over Aušra’s head.

“Here.” Miss Evangelista stooped down to pick up Aušra’s toy. It shook in her hands, but the smile the young woman offered genuinely lighted her face. “You dropped this.” She smiled at Aušra who stopped crying and whimpered pathetically instead. “What’s her name?”

“Aušra Susan,” Rose said, mouth dry.

“Susan?” River merely nodded as if she expected something like that. “Aušra is a pretty name. What’s it mean?”

Rose wanted, desperately, to be petty. Keep Aušra’s name to herself or make a completely unnecessary quip about River not knowing everything. She didn’t. Now so wasn’t the time.

“It means dawn.”

“Susan’s beautiful, too,” Miss Evangelista added in a quivering, thin voice. “Means lily.”

Surprised, both at the fact Miss Evangelista joined in a conversation and that she knew the meaning of _Susan_ , Rose blinked. “Lily,” she murmured. “I had no idea.”

“Is that an amaroq?” Anita asked, nodding toward Aušra.

“An amaroq?” Rose repeated, uncertain of the word. She followed Anita’s gaze to Aušra’s stuffed animal.

“It’s a wolf,” Rose said.

She settled the baby a little more firmly in her sling and tried the bottle again, but Aušra wanted no parts of it. With a sigh, Rose capped the bottle and dropped it to the bottom of the sling. She really needed transdimensional pockets like the Doctor and Jenny.

“Her gran gave it to her,” Rose said as she boosted a squirming Aušra back onto her shoulder.

Francine gave her a lot of things in the months they stayed on Earth. But this was Aušra’s favorite; she clung to it as she would a security blanket, even though the Doctor swore Time Tots had no need of security blankets. Now, with the attention on the stuffed animal, Aušra clutched the wolf closer and chewed on its ear.

Anita carefully skirted around Miss Evangelista, rather Miss Evangelista’s shadow, and crossed their small circle. She really didn’t have anything against any of them asking questions—except possibly Lux—but the way Anita said _amaroq_ sent a faint—

_(singing, it sang to her and sang through her and sang with her)_

Shiver of cold through her.

“I grew up on New Yup’ik.” Anita shuddered. “Damn cold place. But beautiful.” She looked over at the small windows where the sun continued its too-rapid descent. “The sky was always so beautiful. Endless purples during the day and blues and greens at night. The only thing I loved about that world.”

“Is that why you became an archaeologist?” Rose asked softly. “To leave New Yup’ik?”

Anita looked at River. The brief, silent conversation they shared spoke more than any of them had verbally since arriving. Another story Rose knew would be fascinating. She just hoped it didn’t end too soon on _this_ planet.

“No,” Anita said quietly. “I was archaeologist on New Yup’ik. It was a family occupation. I joined Professor Song because she was the only person to offer me a place on her team after I got out of prison.”

Rose nodded, mouth forming a silent _Oh_. She wanted to ask why the other woman was in prison then decided it didn’t matter. Everyone had a past. Not everyone was lucky enough to move away from it.

“Prison?” Lux demanded. “Professor Song, you assured me—”

“Oh, stuff, it Mr. Lux,” River snapped.

Rose added her glare and Lux backed down, arms folded over his chest, face set in a glower. And he’d been doing so well, too...

“You’ll not be getting a reference from me,” he muttered.

“Anyway.” Anita cleared her throat and looked at Aušra and her stuffed wolf.

Behind Rose, the Doctor and Jenny clattered at the computer with more muttering than anything. She tuned them out and focused on Anita. Aušra continued to chew the wolf’s ear.

“There’s a legend. Came from Old Earth, I think. When Earth still had ice. About the amaroq who walked among the Peoples. Legend says nothing remained concealed from her. She knew everything. All that is and was and ever could be. Especially what lies in the Peoples’ souls.”

Rose forgot how to breathe. She knew that saying. She knew—

“Righty-oh!” the Doctor said from beside her. Rose blinked. When had he moved? “Anita, I think that’s enough wolf-stories, yeah?”

“Where...?” Rose licked her lips and tried again. She ignored the Doctor; knew the diversion he tried to create, and ignored it. “What made you tell me that story, Anita?”

“No reason.” Anita shrugged and nodded at Aušra’s wolf. “Your little girl’s toy. It reminded me of it, that’s all. A little piece of home,” she whispered and her gaze wandered to the windows again. “I might never see it again.”

Rose only stared at her. _“I am the Bad Wolf,”_ she whispered. _“I create myself.”_

“Rose.” The Doctor stood in front of her and grabbed her arms. Shook her slightly, mindful of Aušra. “Rose look at me! _Look at me!_ ”

She tore her unseeing gaze from Anita and blinked him into focus. His hair stuck up wildly and his glasses sat slightly crooked on his nose. But his eyes burned through her. She blinked—were they brown or blue-grey?

He looked at her as if he could _(take the Vortex from her again)_ see all she had once upon a time.

“Did I do this?” she asked through numb lips. “Did I create these Time Ripples? Not by coming back, by finding you on my first jump, but...the Heart of the TARDIS...when I looked into Her...did we do this?”

The Doctor opened his mouth and snapped it shut. His fingers tightened around her marriage tattoos, and he looked properly frightened. More so than with the Vashta Nerada. And she didn’t know how to comfort him, Rose had no idea what to do or say. Because she was terrified, too.

_Had she recreated the universe just so she could be with her lover?_

“Who’s the bad wolf?” River asked, her voice unnaturally loud in the silent Library.

Rose blinked to clear her vision and looked at the other woman. River studied her carefully and tilted her head to the side as if she found a particularly fascinating bit of archaeological information.

“I’ve heard of that. The bad wolf. It’s a story across the stars,” River said. “The female alpha wolf as protector, not only to her pups and pack, but to those in need of her. She’s a legend across the universe.”

Rose shudder, suddenly bone-deep cold at River’s words.

“Yes, wonderful,” Lux drawled. “As interesting as I’m sure this is, you weren’t hired to talk about wolf legends. _I_ hired you.”

“Yes, Mr. Lux,” River snapped. “And now I’m trying to save your worthless life.”

“I’m worth more than—”

“Stop it!” Rose shouted.

She whirled from the Doctor’s embrace and looked at the rest of this little expedition. Bad Wolf or not, amaroq or not, Rose embodied them all right at this moment. The mother protecting her pack; the woman protecting her friends and family…and even complete strangers.

Steadying a barely quiet Aušra she stalked to Lux.

“Mr. Lux,” she snapped. Once more she grabbed his spacesuit collar and yanked him face-to-face with her. (Her mother would be so proud…)

“I thought you understood,” she growled and vaguely realized she even sounded like a she-wolf. Angry and growling and all-powerful. “We’re all getting out of this alive. Did you not hear me before? Alive. _Everyone._ So shut your gob and help or so help me—”

“Right!” Lux said and visibly cowered.

Rose had to admit, that sent a slight thrill through her. And, while she was on the subject of wolves, it calmed her inner one. Maybe it was fanciful thinking or maybe it was only now presenting itself/herself, but Rose felt it and embraced that inner she-wolf.

“Yes,” Lux nodded. “The data core. That’s where you need to be. The data core.”

******  
Pete’s World**  
“Yes!” Mickey Smith pumped his hand in the air.

“Did you find it?” He looked up at Jackie and blinked, surprised to see her standing there. “Mickey, did you find it?”

“Yeah, Jacks. Yeah, I got it. Fine tuning it now.”

He breathed a sigh of relief and turned the dial in miniscule increments. What he wanted to do was zip through the range until he found the correct frequency. However, it’d taken them months and months to find the frequency that connected them to Rose’s phone.

At this stage, with riots raging outside and the third sub-basement of Torchwood Tower the only safe place for them, he didn’t want to miss their chance because he rushed.

“I’ll check on the others,” Jackie promised and disappeared.

“Jake, man, can you—”

Mickey swallowed hard. There was no answer. Of course there wasn’t. Jake died two weeks ago on a reconnaissance mission. He saved the President, but the rioters beat him to death. The world was getting worse.

The night sky was a clean black slate, with only the moon’s light to break its monotony. Chaos spread until governments crumbled. Britain tried to hold on, but two weeks ago even Harriet Jones’s martial law broke down.

Mickey didn’t know if President Jones knew what they were doing in the third sub-basement of Torchwood Tower, but he honestly didn’t care. This was for the survival of his family—and whatever remained of this world after they were gone.

Rose firmly believed, as they all did, when she jumped the first time nearly four years ago, that the Doctor knew how to help. How to stop the stars going out. When she didn’t return, when they couldn’t contact her, they all lost hope.

Until a signal pierced through on the same frequency Rose used—or was supposed to use—to contact them. It had one word, just one. But it was in Rose’s voice.

_“Doctor!”_

It gave them all hope and they redoubled their efforts to punch through to the other universe. To find Rose and the Doctor, whom Jackie firmly believed Rose did find.

“Jackie said you had news?”

He looked up and grinned. “Found her! Just trying to tune in. Not like those other times when I thought I connected to her phone or the TARDIS. This time,” Mickey assured her, “the connection to Rose’s phone is clear.” He frowned and returned his attention to the computer in front of him. “Or will be.”

******  
Donna’s Universe**  
“What?” Donna looked from the clear sky overhead. In the corner of her eye she saw it—a flash of light.

Terrified it was the Pyros come to cull them, she whirled towards home. She had to warn her village—Donna stumbled back. She ran into a woman and barely caught herself before she fell to the ground.

“Oh, sorry,” the other woman said in a strange accent. “Didn’t see you there.”

Not a Pyro. Human, at least Donna thought so—and definitely not a Pyro. Mind-slave maybe?  
She sure didn’t look like one, not with those strange clothes and popping up out of nowhere.

“How could you not see me?” Donna demanded. She spread her arms wide in the open field. “The crowds block your view?”

The woman snickered but tilted her head to the side. “Are you Donna, then?” She nodded. “Yes, I suppose you are.”

“Who are you?” Donna demanded. “Where’d you come from?” She eyed the woman up and down. The tight trousers, the oddly colored waistcoat in strange material, the unusual shoes. “And what the hell are you wearing?”

“I’ve been looking for you, Donna Noble.”

“If you’re one of the Pyro mind-slaves—”

The woman shook her head, blonde hair brushing over her shoulders. “No. No, I’m not even from around here.” She looked up a little wistfully. “Used to be.”

“How can you _used_ to be?” she demanded, voice rising. “Nobody leaves, unless it’s to the Vents. And no one returns from there.”

Not human at least. They might return, to show what happened to those who disobeyed the Pyros, or as soldiers to cull the latest batch for the Vents. But they weren’t human. Not anymore.

“Notice anything strange around here?”

“Other than you popping up out of thin air?” Donna mocked.

She smiled, a little sad, a little amused. “Oh, I didn’t pop up.”

“Well you certainly picked a terrible place to build a second home then,” Donna sneered.

“Where are we?”

Donna debated answering. If she really was a mind-slave, she did a lousy job reading Donna’s mind. At this distance even the weakest slave was capable of reading a human. And Donna hadn’t ever been very good at hiding her feelings.

“Ceswican Village,” Donna finally said.

“Ceswican,” she repeated slowly. “Ceswican. Cheswick?” The blonde nodded. “It’s pretty here.” Her lips curled slightly; not in a smile it could never be called that. “Not how I remember it.”

Donna snorted; she didn’t know what else to do. Folding her arms over her far-too-warm wool tunic, she continued to stare at the woman, unimpressed.

“Do you dream, Donna Noble?”

“What?” Donna blinked. “I suppose.” She answered before she thought otherwise. “Why?”

Of a better life, of a better world. Of cool air without the thick smoke and ash from the volcanoes. Of a world her family might still be together, not torn apart. Where her children might still be with her, not as part of the Pyro-initiative where they brainwashed the newest generation.

Of a world where they didn’t cull you to transform you into Pyros.

“Ever dream about a man?” The blonde tilted her head, her wheat-colored eyes dancing in the starlight. “Tall, skinny, really great hair?”

“Wh…” Donna trailed off and stared. Yes. No. She shook her head. How did this woman know?

“A man unlike any other?” she continued. “Lots of running, new grass beneath your feet, new sky overhead?”

Donna looked up, but instead of the stars that blanketed Pyrovile, she saw a clear pink sky with two suns. Her dream-self looked to the side and saw a woman—this woman—laughing next to her, hugely pregnant and holding the hand of the man Donna sometimes did dream of.

They looked incredibly happy as the three of them walked along a path through towering trees in odd colors. Happy and she was a part of that. Donna was with them because they wanted her to be. Her best friends.

She shook her head to clear it. Dreams. Nothing more.

“Who are you?” She tried again.

“I have to go.” She looked at her wrist and the odd contraption latched around it. “But think about it, Donna Noble. Think about that man. And try to remember that world.”

“What’s your name?” Donna shouted as the woman skipped down the small hill.

But she disappeared in the same flash of blinding light that first caught Donna’s attention.

******  
Splinter Universe**  
“I found her,” Rose said to Mickey and Jake as she stepped off the platform.

She wanted to vomit, but breathed slowly. Jumping through the Void was dangerous enough; every second she was in there was one she might be permanently trapped. If a little (all right, a lot) of nausea was her only side effect, she’d take it.

“Donna Noble?” Jake asked.

“Found her on a hillside in what’s supposed to be London.” Rose shook her head and took a protein wafer from the plate.

Jumping depleted her energy and she was usually starving. But food hadn’t stayed down since her first, failed, jump ages ago. Her first jump onto a deserted alleyway in Manhattan by Wall Street where beat police walked the streets looking for jumpers—1930 and not a shred of hope to be found in that city.

Mickey and Jake, bless their imaginative little minds, came up with the wafers after that jump and the heart wrenching pain of failure. Not that Rose thought she’d find the Doctor on her first jump. But that hope, oh the hope that maybe….

She’d been sick from the Void and the cannon and grief.

“Not the Earth we remember,” Rose added with a look to Mickey. “Hotter, hotter even than here. And barren. I swore she said we were in Cheswick, or a word close to that, but it didn’t look like London, that’s for sure. Swore we were in the country.”

Somehow, and Rose had no idea how, the TARDIS seemed to still translate for her. Was it because she finally found her way back to her original Earth? The Prime Universe? Or was it, even though the Doctor wasn’t on Earth—wasn’t there at that Earth—or something, it was all rather confusing—that the TARDIS _was_ there?

Or something else?

That deeper connection Rose sometimes dreamed about…

The singing and the warm glow and the Doctor laughing with her as they ran. Not a memory she had from their time together, but one—with a blonde haired, blue-eyed woman who reminded her of the girlish dreams she had about having a child, a little girl, with her first Doctor.

A woman she didn’t know but instinctually realized was the closest thing she had to a sister.

Of Jack. And Sarah jane. And so many others.

“Anything different about her?” Mickey wondered as he ran the scanner over her dimensional jumper and took her phone to download the data she picked up. “Donna Noble I mean. Other than the Earth, anything different?”

Rose blinked and looked around—Torchwood, she was in the cannon room in Torchwood. But why did she think she was...someplace else? The TARDIS?

Wishful thinking, that was all. She was so close now, so close to finding the Doctor.

******  
Prime Universe**  
They raced back to the room where the TARIDS sat and Rose had never seen a more welcomed sight.

“The main data core is located in the same room we started out in?” She glanced at the Doctor who blinked in the same frustrated confusion.

“How’d we land the TARDIS in the data core room?” Jenny asked in equal shock.

It was one of the many things that often happened when they traveled. Rose didn’t know if it truly was coincidence, though she hesitated to use that word, or if the TARDIS knew where She needed to be.

If the latter was the case, Rose and She needed to have serious words. Or…well…no. She supposed not. After all, it was Rose who insisted they investigate. Not investigate.

Help.

But that was for later. They lost Other Dave on the way; the Vashta Nerada devoured him and took his voice. Which seemed familiar, but Rose didn’t have time to delve into why it did.

“Why are they holding back?” Rose asked. She kept her voice low and moved closer to the Doctor and Jenny. “The Vashta Nerada, why are they holding back? They could’ve had us all by now, but they didn’t.”

“They aren’t in control,” Jenny whispered. “It’s their forests, but they’re not in charge. Something else is. And it wants to change everything.”

“What is?” the Doctor demanded. “Jenny, can you see it?

Jenny shook her head. “But it’s not happy, whatever has even the Vashta Nerada scared, holding back, it wants to change everything. And it’s losing.”

“We need to hurry,” the Doctor agreed to Jenny’s unspoken words.

“You know, it’s funny,” River said to Anita and Miss Evangelista. She breathed heavily from their run but kept her voice quiet. Still, Rose heard her in the terrible silence. “I keep wishing the Doctor was here.”

“The Doctor is here, isn’t he?” Anita looked up, caught Rose’s gaze then looked to where Jenny and the Doctor worked on the terminal to open the data core.

CAL was on some sort of lockdown and refused to release anything—the trapped people, the computers, the transmat.

Hell, Rose thought and rubbed her temples to ease the headache pounding there. CAL refused to even acknowledge Donna was someplace in the Library. If Donna wasn’t in the Library and she wasn’t on the TARDIS, where the hell was she?

River followed Anita’s gaze and shook her head slightly. But she, too, looked up at Rose. Rose didn’t know if it was to include her in the conversation or not, and settled Aušra to her chest. Unbuttoning her blouse, she turned slightly and unhooked her nursing bra for Aušra to nurse.

At least it kept her quiet for a bit.

“You know when you see a photograph of someone you know,” River continued—she spoke to Anita and Miss Evangelista but looked at Rose. “But it’s from years before you knew them. And it’s like they’re not quite finished. They’re not done yet. Well, yes, the Doctor’s here. He came when I called, just like he always does. But not my Doctor.”

River’s eyes slipped from Rose to the Doctor and back again. Rose couldn’t read the other woman, didn’t know what emotion played in her eyes other than sadness and longing. But she hated it. Hated that she hated it, the choking jealousy. Hated there was another woman in the universe the Doctor might marry.

_Logically_ she thought she should be all right with it—the Doctor would far outlive her, even with the changes he made to her DNA. _Logically_ Rose thought she should want him to find another love.

She wanted him to be happy, to hold onto the peace he found with her—the joy and happiness and contentment. But seeing the evidence of another woman, even one from far in the future, standing directly in front of her tore Rose to shreds.

If River truly was the future and not an alternate timeline that got jumbled somehow. The Time Ripples showed them all different paths, paths not taken because of one thing or another, because of change. It wasn’t usual—normally those Time Streams simply died off.

So what was so special about _these_ Streams, _these_ Ripples?

Jenny and the Doctor both said timelines were difficult to see here in this library, that the Ripples obscured everything. Was that it, then? The Ripples catching up with them? Was this the epicenter?

And Rose didn’t know what to make of that, either. But River didn’t know her, Rose, and she didn’t know Jenny other than a story that hadn’t happened. River didn’t know the Doctor had children who traveled with him.

Either a horrific catastrophic event occurred, and her family had been…lost, or River didn’t know the Doctor Rose knew and loved. Alternate timeline sounded like the only explanation; the only logical one if she was to be logical.

“Now _my Doctor_ , I’ve seen whole armies turn and run away.” River’s gaze remained on her now, with a wistfulness that choked Rose, made her skin prickle with uncomfortable heat. “And he’d just swagger off back to his TARDIS and open the doors with a snap of his fingers. The Doctor in the TARDIS. Next stop, everywhere.”

“No one can open a TARDIS by snapping their fingers.” Rose switched a sleepy Aušra to her other breast. “It doesn’t work like that.”

“It does for the Doctor,” River insisted.

“The Doctor respects the TARDIS too much to treat Her like that,” Rose snapped. Then closed her eyes and sighed. Aušra nodded off against her breast and she carefully moved the little girl slightly away to re-hook her nursing bra.

And Rose certainly didn’t like the whole armies bit. No, that sickened her.

Not because she hadn’t seen it for herself—the Daleks, after all, were terrified of the Doctor. But the way River said it so casually meant, to Rose, that the Doctor was harder when River knew (or would know or had known or whatever) him. Angrier.

“Argh!” The Doctor shot up and away from the computer terminal that caught fire.

Rose turned, blouse still unbuttoned, but the Doctor nodded in reassurance. “No injuries.” But he didn’t sound relieved, only annoyed.

Things were not going their way. She sighed and hugged Aušra closer. 

The she-wolf protecting her pack, her cubs. Yes, Rose’d do anything to see her family safe. Anything.

“The computer won’t release the safety locks,” Jenny said from beside him.

_“Run. For God’s sake, run. No way is safe. The library has sealed itself, we can’t. Oh, they’re here…Count the shadows. For God’s sake, remember, if you want to live, count the shadows.”_

“Doctor?” Rose asked and met his gaze.

She tried to cover Aušra’s ears but the noise, the volume of so many node voices repeating the same thing over and over, woke her and she once more cried. Cried and clung to Rose and reached for the Doctor. Her reddish-purple bond felt as if frantic fingers strummed it, vibrating with fear and the unknown.

_“Run. For God’s sake, run. No way is safe. The library has sealed itself, we can’t. Oh, they’re here…Count the shadows. For God’s sake, remember, if you want to live, count the shadows.”_

The message repeated itself from every node and every computer, written and spoken. Over and over, until it bounced throughout the entire Library.

“Lux,” the Doctor called over the noise. “Is there any other way to open the data core without blowing ourselves up?”

Then it changed. The message changed to read CAL. Nothing but CAL.

“What’s CAL?” the Doctor demanded. He rounded the computer terminal and stalked to Lux. “CAL, it’s followed us around—What. Is. It?”

“We need to stop this,” Lux said and sounded truly scared for the first time. “We’ve got to save CAL.”

“What is CAL?” Rose added her voice to the Doctor’s demand in the sudden silence. Everything stopped and she shivered, chilled to her soul. “We saw that before, CAL. What is it?”

“Charlotte Abigail Lux!” Lux shouted. Then he sagged and ran a hand over his face. When he looked at Rose again it wasn’t at her, but at Aušra. And something in him changed.

“She’s my grandfather’s youngest daughter. She was dying,” he said and shifted his gaze to Rose. “So he built her a library and put her living mind inside, with a moon to watch over her, and all of human history to pass the time. Any era to live in, any book to read. She loved books more than anything, and he gave her them all. He asked only that she be left in peace. A secret, not a freak show.”

“You weren’t protecting a patent,” Rose whispered, equal parts horrified at what happened to a little girl and understanding. Grandfather Lux wanted to see his daughter live even if it was in a computer core and not with family. “You were protecting her.”

She didn’t approve, not really. Not of the life that little girl was forced to endure. But she did understand that driving need to see your children survive at any cost.

“This is only half a life, of course,” Lux admitted, seemingly contrite. “But it’s forever.”

“Why didn’t you tell us this when we first asked?” Rose demanded. “You could’ve saved Other Dave and Donna…”

She swallowed and blinked back tears. _Oh Donna. Where the hell are you?_ Caught in whatever void the rest of the four thousand ‘saved’ people were?

“Saved.” Jenny looked up and eagerly took a step forward. “You don’t saved people, you save people.”

“Four thousand and twenty two saved. No survivors.” The Doctor bounced on his heels and nodded. His excitement exploded over her and for the first time since they landed, Rose felt hope. “They’re in the computer. CAL, Charlotte,” he corrected with a nod to Lux, “she _saved_ them. That’s why we keep seeing CAL on everything.”

“Charlotte is telling us what happened to them,” Rose realized. She met the Doctor’s gaze and saw his agreement there. “She’s telling us how to retrieve them—how to save them from a hundred-year computer existence.”

“Well, then. Data core, yeah? Let’s go.” River smiled but it was strained. She nodded to the floor and took out a sonic screwdriver.

“Oh,” Jenny said. She blinked and nodded. “I know who you are.”

******  
Donna’s Universe**  
Donna didn’t even startle when she saw the same blinding light from the corner of her eye. Another night, another visit from her mysterious friend—this made ten nights in a row. No, friend was far too generous a term. Tormentor?

Donna snorted. No, her tormentors were definitely the Pryos.

“Every night I find you out here,” the blonde said. “What are you searching for?”

“What are you?” Donna shot back.

“I found what I’m looking for,” the woman said.

“Me?” Donna shook her head and looked back at the stars. They weren’t as bright tonight.

“What do you see when you look at the stars?”

Donna didn’t answer but closed her eyes. She saw escape. A new life. A faint sense of what her gramps used to call _hope_ , whatever that was. Instead she asked, “What’s your name?”

Another night, another evasion.

“None of this was meant to happen.” She stepped closer, but didn’t touch Donna. “There was a man. This wonderful man and he stopped it.”

When she looked at the stranger, the familiar stranger, Donna felt a sense of urgency she’d only ever felt once before, when her gramps had a heart attack and she tried to find help.

But of course the Pyros didn’t help their human cattle.

“You dream about him sometimes,” the woman continued. “Don’t you. This man in a suit—clothes you’ve never seen in this world. Tall, thin man. Great hair.” She sighed and looked into the fields, a far off longing in her gaze. “Some really great hair.”

She sighed wistfully and pressed her fingers together as if she remembered the feel of this man’s hair beneath her fingertips. Donna felt a pang for…something. Or someone. Or…no, not her husband, definitely not that loser who left the village as soon as the Pyro’s took their children.

What was that? That memory that teased…

“What’s your name?” she asked, harsher than she planned. More fearful than she planned. “Who are you?”

“He died underneath the Thames on Christmas Eve, but you were meant to be there.” The woman cleared her throat and once more looked as no-nonsense as Donna often had to be. “He needed someone to stop him, and that was you. You made him leave. You were there for him when no one else was—could be.”

The woman smiled, a beautiful, full smile that brightened her entire face. “You saved his life, Donna. You saved his life and you saved this world. Without you, so many more billions would’ve died.”

“What’s Christmas?” Donna demanded because she didn’t want to admit to the memory of what this woman said.

The faint tingling beneath her skin, the image of a man, soaking wet and looking as if his entire world disappeared before his very eyes.

“Donna Noble, you’re the most important woman in the whole universe.”

“What the in all the Vents does that mean?” Donna stepped back as if this woman’s words might physically harm her.

“It means this is wrong.” She looked up and shook her head; smile vanished as if it never existed. “All of it is so, so wrong.”

“Who—” Donna licked her lips. “Who are you?”

“I’m…” she sighed. “Rose. I’m Rose. You’re the most important woman in the universe. Without you, I wouldn’t be here. Without you, Donna Noble, there’d be so much death. Look at Earth now. And think of the entire universe like that.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ****** Ceswican Village was the original twelfth century name for Cheswick. Information found here http://hidden-london.com/gazetteer/chiswick/ and here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiswick 
> 
> ****** The amarok or amaroq is a real Inuit wolf legend; I changed the details slightly to suit my story. Hey, in 3,000+ years details are bound to be lost or changed. Right? But that last line, when I read it, fit so perfectly, it gave me chills.  Amarok
> 
> “In another story, a man mourning the death of a relative hears reports that an amarok is nearby. He and a relative go in search of the amarok. They find instead her pups, and the mourner kills them all. The mourner’s relative become frightened. The two retreat to hide in a cave. Looking out, they see the adult amarok returning to her pups, carrying a reindeer in her mouth. When the amarok fails to find her offspring, she hastens to a nearby lake and drags a humanoid form from the water; at that moment, the mourner collapses. The amarok, "from which nothing remains concealed", took the mourner’s soul from his body.”


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Donna Noble, you’re the most important woman in the entire universe. In every universe. It got a little complicated. I hope you follow along!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I tried to treat River with respect and understanding. But this MOST DEFINITELY NOT her story, it is and always will be a Doctor and Rose story. If you absolutely don’t want to read about her, you can skip over the first Prime Universe section, but it is very much plot driven and will come into play later.

**Pete’s World**  
“I got it!”

Mickey shouted so loudly he thought aboveground might hear him. And he didn’t give a damn about that. Because he found it. He found it, damn it, _he found it_!

Finally, after tedious tuning and hours and hours spend hunched over this damned system, Mickey finally found the correct frequency to Rose’s phone and to the TARDIS’s phone and to his home universe. And damn if he didn’t want to do a little dance about it.

Tony, far too old for his age, looked up at him from where he played on the cold concrete floor. “I’ll tell Mum and the others.” 

Then he flew his metal airplane in liftoff, the one Mickey made for him years ago, and ran into the other rooms.

They needed to prepare. There weren’t many of them left. And Mickey didn’t know how many believed him and Jackie and wanted to resettle. Then again, anything was better than this world.

******  
Splinter Universe**  
Rose answered her mobile, though she didn’t recognize the number. Before she started jumping, she never would’ve done so in case a pap or stalker somehow found her number. But things had been so crazed, signals mixed and lost and jumbled up, sometimes unrecognizable numbers were really her mum or Mickey or Pete.

“Yeah?”

Static buzzed in her ear and jolted her. It was loud and piercing, as if it came from the Void itself.

Thumb hovering over the end button, she waited. What if it was the Doctor? What if Mickey finally found a way to—

She blinked in the silence of the cannon room and looked at her mobile. It patiently waited to gather data from her jump, but despite what she thought a moment ago, it didn’t connect to any other mobile. With a sigh, she shoved it into her back pocket.

“Ready for the next jump?” Rose asked Mickey and Jake. “I think Donna’s ready to listen.”

“Is the TARDIS ready?” Mickey asked.

“How’d you find it, anyway?” Jake wondered and squinted at one of the screens.

Rose tilted her head to the side and tried to remember. “I don’t know,” she admitted. “With all the changes to the timeline, I didn’t think She’d even be on Earth. Even though the Doctor traveled to Earth throughout history, because he didn’t stop Vesuvius and the Pyroviles from invading, it changed everything.”

“Don’t get caught in a time loop,” Mickey warned and nodded at his screen. “It’s bad enough we were able to track the TARDIS to a cave by the Thames. If you’re right—” and they all knew she was—“the TARDIS shouldn’t have been anywhere _near_ Earth.”

The entire universe should’ve been rewritten with the Doctor’s death. Rose knew that all too well and it terrified her. But that hadn’t happened. Not really. Rose finally found the right universal hole, used her TARDIS key to lock onto the TARDIS, jumped into their prime universe…and found Donna’s world instead.

It was a mixed-up mess of timelines.

“None of that should’ve happened,” Mickey added. “None of us should’ve even been born.”

“I think,” Rose said slowly, as she tried to trace the trail that led her here, “because someone or something played with time and used Donna to do it, Donna’s World isn’t as cemented in universal reality as it ought to be. It’s isolated. In flux. Almost as if it was a—what’d you call it, Mickey?”

“Pocket.” He circled his thumb and forefinger and wrapped his other hand around them. Not the best description Rose ever saw, but he wasn’t wrong. “A pocket universe, not a parallel one.”

“And the TARDIS,” Jake asked, “You trust this machine to tell you what happened?”

Rose glared at him. “She barely has enough power for what we need Her to do. She wouldn’t waste any of that lying when She could help the Doctor.”

Jake looked skeptical, but Mickey, who knew more about the Doctor and his TARDIS than Jake, said nothing, merely nodded.

“The TARDIS is an entire Time and Space Event Herself,” Rose added. “So who knows what She manipulated or how She rearranged events for it all to work out. She wouldn’t want the Doctor dead, either.”

Rose shuddered. She didn’t even want to think about what the TARDIS would do if the Doctor truly died. It was vague, a feeling more than a memory, but Rose knew how the TARDIS felt when the Doctor sent them both away from the Game Station.

And if She merged with Rose to save the Doctor, what would She do if time had been rewritten and the Doctor died?

“Whatever the reason,” Mickey continued, “be careful. We need Donna to change time so we can find the Doctor and reverse whatever’s happening with the stars.”

“I know that.” Rose scowled. “Is the cannon ready?”

Mickey looked at her hard and nodded. “When you are.”

She stepped onto the platform, wondered why she thought she missed something, a weight around her shoulder, across her chest, a longing deep in her heart and soul. Rose rubbed her thumb over her left fingers, searched for…

She nodded. “Ready.”

In a flash, Rose Tyler shot across the Void and back into Donna’s world. 

******  
Prime Universe**  
“No, Professor Song,” the Doctor said adamantly and spared a glance for the archaeologist. “We don’t need your help.”

Rose straightened his tie, one of her favorite patterns—blue swirls against brown—and waited as he quickly pressed a kiss to the top of Aušra’s head.

“Stay safe.” Rose hugged the Doctor tight, felt his lips brush along her temple, and watched him and Lux step onto the gravity platform, descending out of sight.

She looked from the hole in the floor where her husband disappeared to River.

“Jenny,” Rose said though she maintained eye contact with River. “Make sure your father doesn’t do anything stupid.”

“Already on it, Mum,” Jenny said in a tone that indicated she shared the same thought.

Jenny leaped onto the gravity platform, already in motion, and dropped out of sight. Now that they knew it was Charlotte who simultaneously warned them and guided them, getting to the data core was easier than it had been.

Rose didn’t know how much she trusted that—suddenly it opened to River’s sonic? _Why?_ And how did the professor know there was a gravity platform right there?—but kept that quiet.

As quiet as the bond with her family allowed her to keep her suspicions to herself that was. Then again, there was a lot she didn’t understand, or trust, about this situation.

Proper Dave, Miss Evangelista, and Anita stood far enough apart to hopefully not cross shadows but close enough to Rose and River to eavesdrop.

As if there were any secrets left in the Library.

“He gave you his sonic.” It was a statement not a question.

River merely nodded. “I expected you to accuse me of taking it out of his cold dead hands, but you already know, don’t you.”

Rose slowly nodded and held Aušra more comfortably. She stretched and screamed for her father, but once Jenny leaped after the Doctor, Aušra sobbed pathetically into Rose’s shoulder. One emotion came through strong and clear and chilling—Aušra thought her father disappeared forever.

She kissed her daughter’s head, smoothed her brown hair from her sweaty face, and did her best to soothe her. She hadn’t yet had the chance to rebutton her blouse, and at this point didn’t bother. Flashing these people with her blue nursing bra was the least of her worries.

“It makes sense now. Why no one remembers Cybermen at Christmas or Dalek invasions or people standing on rooftops or the Titanic crashing toward Earth.”

“The Titanic?” River repeated, stunned. “Really?”

Lips curled slightly upward, Rose swallowed around the lump in her throat and wondered if this was the end for her or for River. She held Aušra tighter and reached out through her bond with Jenny.

How terrible was it of her to hope it was River? What sort of person did that make her?

Bile choked her but Rose refused to release her hope—how could she wish River’s timeline survived when it meant hers, hers and her husband and her children and the family she had on Earth and the love and laughter and joy…

Simply disappeared. Vanished as if they never happened? Wiped clean from Time Ripples to be replaced with a universe where Rose seemingly never found the Doctor again.

On the other hand what sort of person wished another out of existence? No, that wasn’t it. Rose certainly didn’t wish River never existed. That was just cruel and Rose wasn’t that person; she didn’t want River to have never been born or to die or to cease to exist.

Rose simply wanted her life, the one she knew and lived, to continue.

She swallowed hard and tried to breathe but her chest hurt and her stomach churned with what the Time Ripples converging truly meant. She scrambled for words but found none. Her heart broke for River and the understanding in the other woman’s gaze; for the woman with a lifetime’s worth of memories now threatened with inexistence.

No, Rose wasn’t cruel or petty or mean or vindictive. But she was human and she wanted the life she led to be the timeline that remained intact.

“The Doctor did something to save my mother.” River’s voice cracked and she shook her head.

Rose licked dry lips her and her heart pounded and fear made her numb. Aušra sobbed and held onto her tighter and Rose had no idea what to do or how to comfort her baby. She rocked Aušra, held onto her so tight, and made sure to keep their bond open and strong.

River looked up as if to stop tears, but when she met Rose’s gaze again it was with the hard understanding of how a story ends. And that broke Rose’s heart. Even with her own life, her own family at stake, it hurt Rose to see such open fear in River’s gaze.

“He hesitated, I know that. But I flew the TARDIS to try and stop whatever was happening.” River cleared her throat. “And the Doctor, he restarted the universe, in a sense.”

“How the hell is that even possible?”

River shook her head and shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t know why he did it or even how. I wasn’t on Earth, I was in the TARDIS.”

Nodding, Rose breathed deeply for a moment, tried to control her own emotions. “And me?” Her voice echoed in the Library, resolute if nothing else.

“All I know about you, Rose Tyler, is that you traveled with the Doctor after the Time War. You and Jack Harkness.” River’s smile indicated she knew him, but Rose didn’t have the words, or the fortitude, to ask how.

“Jack said something to me when I told him about Lux. I wanted him to come, see the Doctor again—it’s been a while.” River snorted but it ended on a sob. She shook her head and cleared her throat. “And you know what Jack said to me?”

Jenny’s bond flared for a moment, annoyed, clashed with the Doctor’s. That didn’t surprise Rose—they were so much alike and argued often—and she kept her attention on River and the ever-setting sun.

Why hadn’t the Vashta Nerada attacked by now? They had ample opportunity to devour each of them. Yet they hesitated. Waited. Why?

Something else was here. And it held the Vashta Nerada back. Skin tingling with that knowledge, that nebulous feeling of another problem-trap-trick, Rose held Aušra closer.

“What?” Rose managed. “What did Jack say?”

“He asked me _What kind of Doctor do you want in this universe, River? One who heals and helps? Or one who’s fractured and broken and angry?_ ”

Aušra fussed and cried, and Rose rocked her gently. She took a moment to make sure the walls around her bond with the child were torn down and pushed through only love and hope and confidence. Rose hoped that soothed her. Hoped it worked on her, too. 

It didn’t on either of them.

“What was your answer?” Rose asked into the eerie silence.

The Doctor, though he kept himself partially closed off, figured it out. How Rose didn’t know, but whatever it was relieved both he and Jenny…until it didn’t. There was something else, a part of their plan both her daughter and husband kept from her.

One thing at a time, and right now Rose concentrated on River. On answers to both their questions.

“I asked Jack what it mattered.” River tried to laugh again and this time didn’t even bother to hide her sob. “He’s the Doctor.”

“You said you’ve seen entire armies run from the Doctor.” Rose once more tried to swallow around the lump in her throat. “Tell me, River Song. Who were those armies? What had they done to run from the Doctor? More importantly, what did _the Doctor_ do to terrify them so badly?”

“That’s just it,” River admitted. “I didn’t know what Jack meant. I thought the Doctor I knew was the Doctor he knew, too.”

“No. Jack knew _my_ Doctor.”

“The Doctor, I know is angry. He doesn’t give chances. He fights.” River shook her head again, and Rose knew she saw a different man than she had when she first set foot in the Library.

“Rose Tyler, the woman I studied, died at the Battle of Canary Wharf. I didn’t know how important you were to the Doctor until today.” River paused then spoke faster. “He never talked about you, barely mentioned you. Jack mentioned you, _once_ , but not around the Doctor.”

Suddenly Rose knew why. She’d been so focused on the shadows and on what happened to Donna, she hadn’t realized it the first time River said anything.

“I was trapped in a parallel universe,” Rose said. “I must’ve found him, because you know nothing about stars going out.”

She glanced at the rest of the group but they looked enraptured at the story. But no—if she hadn’t found the Doctor, if they hadn’t reversed the stars going out, then the universe would be dead. Not just restarted. Dead.

Unless, of course, the Doctor also figured it out himself and changed it, but Rose preferred to think she at least found him. Had something to do with saving the multiverse, her original reason for using the cannon and jumping through the Void.

“I knew about Donna, because of what happened to her with the Twenty-Seven Planets—the stars going out,” River clarified.

A cold rock settled in the pit of her stomach as if she could possibly be any more scared, any more worried. But Rose merely nodded. Something went wrong then. If she found the Doctor and they reversed the Twenty-Seven Planets/stars going out then…

Then what happened to _her_?

If she died, Rose knew the Doctor would blame himself. He’d never speak of her again—oh, Rose was all too familiar with his grief process and guilt complex. _Oh, Doctor, my love._

“What about the planets—” Rose shook her head and cut herself off. “Go on.”

“But you, Rose, he never mentioned. A look, a change of subject when we discussed alternate universes, but he shut down pretty quickly.”

“He does that,” Rose said, a faint curl to her lips in a parody of a smile. “He doesn’t like goodbyes. Doesn’t like talking about the past.”

“But I see how he is with you. The closeness. The…” River shook her head. “The protectiveness. And children—the Doctor I knew never would’ve had children. He ran from too much. And now I wonder: did restarting the universe cause the timelines to splinter?”

Something was wrong in the data core.

“There’ve been Ripples for years,” Rose said quickly.

She didn’t know what happened but needed to get down there. Didn’t want her family to try something stupid and get themselves hurt…or worse.

“When I jumped back from the alternate universe—” she frowned—“the Time Ripples started. We don’t know if it’s because I found the Doctor on my first jump or something else.”

“Why were you looking for him?” River asked, conveniently skipping over universe jumping, alternated worlds, and the fact she was still very much alive.

Damn. Rose really did like her.

“Because the stars were going out.”

“You were trapped in another world and he couldn’t reach you.” River nodded. “Explains why he never spoke of you. Still...” She stopped. “Spoilers,” she said weakly.

Rose shook her head, already walking away from the conversation. “Something’s wrong down there. I don’t know what. But the Doctor’s not happy and he and Jenny are arguing. Damn. He’s going to do something stupid.”

“How do you know that?” Proper Dave asked. The first time anyone else spoke. “I can only hear you two.”

“Marriage bond,” Rose said shortly and dug her own sonic from her pocket. “I can feel him.”

“Fuck.” River cursed.

Rose almost giggled—it really was a universal word—but the platform appeared then. “I’m going down. If no one is back up in twenty minutes, get in the TARDIS. She’ll open for you if there’s trouble.”

River looked at her strangely but said nothing for a moment. “That’s Gallifreyan.” She nodded to Rose’s marriage pendant, clearly on display with her open blouse.

“Yes.”

“And your ring?”

“Current Earth tradition.” Rose ran her thumb over the ring.

River nodded again. “Now I know why he married me.” Her voice broke. “Circular paradox.” She snorted and shook her head. “Last time I saw him—before today—he took me to Darillium to see the Singing Towers. What a night that was. The Towers sang.”

River paused and looked hard at Rose. “He gave me his sonic screwdriver and he cried.”

“He knew,” Rose said and wondered why River told her this.

Maybe it was so someone remembered her.

River nodded. “He knew I’d be here in the Library and he knew the ending to my story. He always knew.”

“I’m sorry.” Rose wanted to say there was a way, wanted to promise River this wasn’t the end. The words choked her.

“You believe me, don’t you.” River stated more than asked.

She didn’t have to elaborate, the silence between them echoed with all River didn’t say.

“I could demand answers,” Rose said and felt time ticking down. “Proof. But we both know that’s not necessary.”

“If it helps,” River whispered, “he never offered me more than his name. And now, I think that was because of here. Our first—and last—meeting.”

It didn’t matter. Or maybe it did, Rose didn’t know. She felt too much, far too many emotions since arriving on this cursed planet and discovering River Song’s connection to the Doctor. They choked her and battered her and she honestly had no idea what to think or feel anymore.

“I need to save my family,” Rose said instead.

“I’m coming with you.”

Rose didn’t try and stop her. Together they rode the platform down to the core, Aušra hiccupping against her shoulder. Before Rose stepped off, however, River stopped her.

“I know how my story ends now.” Her hand brushed over Aušra’s head. The baby didn’t cry, in fact she stopped all together and turned large brown eyes onto River, who smiled.

“Not many people get that do they?” River said more to herself than either Aušra or Rose. “But I do. I get to choose my own path. Jenny was right. I never had that chance—I never had a childhood. I never knew what it was like to grow up with a family who loved me.”

River shook her head. “With _anyone_ who loved me.” She stared at Rose’s marriage pendant and took her hand. Brushed a finger over Rose’s ring.

“To have a husband who loved me. He cares for me; I know he does, but….” She cleared her throat. “I never thought I’d say this, I like my life. The one I have now. The one I created. But I can’t have it if it means....” she cut herself off again. Sniffed hard and wiped at her cheeks. When she looked at Rose again it was with dry eyes.

“You don’t have the pendant,” Rose said, stating the obvious.

“Or a ring.” River shrugged. “That wasn’t important. Rings aren’t in this century. But if they were important enough to you that he gave you one...”

“He wears one, too,” Rose added. Not to be mean, but because the words slipped out. She pressed her lips together to halt any further words—she really didn’t want to hurt River any more than the other woman already hurt.

“We don’t have a telepathic marriage bond, but I suppose,” River sighed ruefully, “I don’t need to tell you that. You already figured it out, huh.”

“Yeah.” Rose licked her lips and didn’t say a word about their marriage tattoos.

“You’ll forgive me,” River said stronger now, “if I hope to see the Doctor again.”

Rose found herself nodding.

“But I can’t let him die.” River looked at her, confident and assured. “One day I’m going to be—” she shuddered and corrected herself—“or I was going to be, someone he trusts completely. But I can’t wait for him to find that out. So I’m going to prove it. And I’m sorry. I’m really very sorry.”

Rose was absolutely not surprised when River whispered the Doctor’s name in her ear. But the word, the beautiful Gallifreyan word, shattered the hand gripping her heart and a tear fell from her tight control.

“I know.” Rose swallowed and fought for words but...nothing. There was nothing— “Wait!” she cried when River turned away. “Who’s your mum?”

“What?” River looked over her shoulder and frowned. “What difference does that make?”

“You said the Doctor did something to save your mum.” Rose held Aušra closer and stepped off the platform. “Who was she? I’ll find her. Make sure she’s safe. Make sure _you_ are safe.”

“Amy.” River licked her lips. “Amelia Pond and Rory Williams.”

“Amelia...” Rose managed a nod. “It’s a beautiful name.”

“Keep him safe, Rose Tyler.” River turned again then stopped. Over her shoulder she said. “I’ll send him and Jenny back up. Better go there yourself. Get Aušra Susan out of here.”

Rose doubted being up in the main part of the Library was any safer than down here, but nodded. “Yeah. Tell Jenny. Don’t tell him, he either won’t believe you or will ignore you. If you know him as well as I think you do, tell Jenny. She’ll help.”

She waited as River nodded, complete understanding on her face, and stepped back onto the platform. Rose watched until River turned the corner then activated her sonic again and let the tears fall freely as the platform rose.

Opening her bond with Jenny, she pushed one thing through— _you can trust River Song._

Anita caught her when she stepped off. “What happened to Professor Song?”

“They’re still trying to save everyone,” Rose said. She swallowed her tears and wiped her face. Miss Evangelista produced a handkerchief from someplace and Rose gratefully took it.

“Amelia Pond and Rory Williams...” Rose repeated the names though she needn’t. They were burned in her mind as surely as her own children’s. She’d find them. And make sure they were safe.

Damn. She should’ve asked River _when_ she could find them. Rose looked over at the TARDIS and suddenly knew their beloved ship had the answer waiting for her.

“Thank you,” Rose whispered. To the TARDIS.

And to River Song.

********  
River Song, once known as Melody Pond though she never let anyone call her that, took a deep breath and prepared to battle the Doctor. She knew what he planned, the stupid man. As if she didn’t know him and his self-sacrificing tendencies.

Jenny was right. Hers wasn’t the correct timeline. And River knew—she always knew—deep in her heart that the Doctor hadn’t loved her. Not in the all-encompassing sense she saw with Rose Tyler. The Doctor loved her as he loved all his friends yes, but not in that soul-shattering way.

And until today, until this time-wrong meeting, River never realized how much she wanted that sort of love.

But River believed—she had to—that somehow, some way, she’d meet the Doctor again. And they’d run. Oh, they’d run.

“I’ll do it.” Jenny said as River came into view. The blonde stepped close to the Doctor as he connected wires to something hidden in his hand.

“No.” The Doctor turned to Jenny with the fiercest look River had ever seen.

“Dad, you’re going to need—”

“I’ll do it.” River stepped beside Jenny.

******  
Donna’s Universe**  
“What is this?” Donna demanded. “Where’d you find it? What’s it do?”

She wanted to say if the Pyro’s found it they’d all be sent to the Vents, but that seemed the least of this Rose’s worries. For reasons Donna didn’t understand one damn bit, Rose cared more for her than for whatever the Pyros might do.

The woman was barmy.

“I told you. She’s the TARDIS. Powered down now,” Rose admitted and ran a hand over one soaring column. “She’s also the way home. For all of us.”

Donna nodded. For her children taken from her at birth and sent south to the indoctrination camps, for her Gramps allowed to die because no one cared about human cattle, for her friends and family sent to the Vents. She’d do this for them.

Change the world.

What a terrifying thought. Terrifying and…exhilarating. _(Like she’d done this before, changed the world or been a part of that change. Done something, anything any little act to make the world (universe?) a better place.)_

“I still don’t see how I did anything,” Donna admitted as Rose worked to pull long ropes of some sort in place. She hooked them into this TARDIS thing and flicked her fingers at the board. It lighted up like the night sky, like Rose did whenever she appeared or disappeared.

“You’re brilliant,” Rose assured her with a real smile. “Absolutely brilliant.”

Donna snorted in disbelief.

“But you are, Donna,” Rose said in a softer voice. “You’re brilliant and kind, caring and brave.”

She didn’t believe her, but chose to drop it. If she pushed too hard, Rose would only say what Donna already knew—that she was a failure. Couldn’t keep her family safe, couldn’t save her children, barely kept her village alive.

“And how is it,” Donna asked slowly as Rose looked over her work, “you’re here? No.” She shook her head. “What was it you said? _Without you, I wouldn’t be here_.”

Rose only nodded and shifted Donna to stand in a circle of bright artificial light. The kind only seen in the Pyro ships. But Donna stayed where she stood and hoped her voice didn’t shake as much as her hands.

“I wouldn’t be, no. Both our lives would be far, far different.”

“How?” Donna demanded and shook off Rose’s hands. “Tell me how! Just that. I’ll do it, I already agreed. I’m not backing down and if you’re right, I won’t remember any of this stinking world anyway. So how? How can it be that without me you wouldn’t be here? It makes no sense.”

“I was...” Rose tugged on her earring, a beautiful hoop that glinted in the light. Then she dropped her hands and straightened. “Because of you, Donna, I found the Doctor far sooner than now. I found him and we have a life together with a beautiful family.”

She shrugged, but not in a dismissive way. In a way that indicated she tried not to show others how much it hurt. Donna was all too familiar with that particular shrug.

“At least that’s what the TARDIS says. Not sure what it means.”

Donna didn’t believe her. No, Rose understood perfectly what the TARDIS thing meant. She thought she knew what it meant, too, and ached for the other woman’s loss.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered. 

Rose only looked at her once more, hand over the board. “Ready?”

“Turn left. Make sure I turn left instead of right.” Donna nodded, not satisfied with Rose’s explanation but ready to change this horrible, stinking world for something far, far better. Because anything was better than this Pyro-filled place of hate and fear.

“Yes.” Rose didn’t smile. “Make sure you turn left.” She nodded. “Don’t visit Mr. Chowdry, head to H.C. Clements.”

Something flashed in Rose’s eyes, there and gone and Donna wondered what it meant. But then Rose crossed the short distance to where she stood and hugged her.

“Good luck, Donna Noble. And if you only remember one thing from this world,” she said, “remember this. Two words. Just two.”

Donna waited, and Rose offered a slight, wistful smile. As if she remembered a particularly fond memory.

_“Bad Wolf.”_

Sick to her stomach at what she was about to do, Donna nodded. “Bad Wolf. All right.”

And everything vanished in a flash of golden light.

******  
Splinter World**  
Rose looked around the TARDIS console room as Donna disappeared in a flash of (very familiar) golden light. She didn’t know if Donna did it or not. Wasn’t even sure she hooked up the TARDIS properly to make the time travel part work.

Oh, sure, she followed the directions the TARDIS suggested, and Mickey helped from his end in Control as much as either of them understood any of the mechanics of the TARDIS. But the TARDIS’s telepathic link with her was weak and Rose wasn’t very familiar with Her controls and frankly the entire thing hinged more on luck than anything else.

Then again, wasn’t that what this entire Dimension Cannon Project hinged on? Luck she’d find the Doctor?

If the TARDIS was to be believed, Rose already found the Doctor. Found him far sooner than she had—not that Rose’d found him so far. She found this world with Donna Nobel in the center of every test Mickey and Jake ran when Rose’s TARDIS key insisted she was in the correct universe.

Still...it was lovely knowing she found the Doctor and they had the life they always talked about.

She wondered what she’d find when she jumped back to Control. Whether or not Donna’s sacrifice worked or if her atoms now scattered in the Void. Would _her_ atoms scatter in the Void on her own jump if Donna’s jump worked?

Rose didn’t know. But she couldn’t stay here, not with Donna trying to correct the time displacement. She had tons more questions—how this happened and how whoever concocted what happened had found Donna, used Donna, and why Donna? Not to mention the wheres and whys.

And who. Who was behind this? And what they hoped to accomplish by changing Donna’s fate and consequently the Doctor’s?

And hers.

“I’ll be back,” Rose promised the TARDIS.

She gave a weak hum in reply, Her center column brightening just for a heartbeat.

“And it’ll be a better world.” She stroked the coral by the door. “Yeah? It’ll be a far better world.”

Rose stepped outside and activated her jumper. A quote from Charles Dickens followed her as she did so.

_“It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.”_

******  
Prime Universe**  
The Doctor should be angry with Jenny for helping Professor Song take the controls from him. Angry Jenny wanted to sacrifice herself and angry Professor Song had done so in his place.

Mostly he felt relieved.

He knew what needed to be done in order to release those people trapped in the CAL system. He hadn’t wanted to, hadn’t wanted to leave Rose, his daughters. Running a hand through his hair, he pressed his fingertips to his eyelids.

“Why do you suppose future you gave her your sonic?” Jenny asked.

Head tilted, Jenny stared down at Professor Song’s body. With careful movements, she placed the sonic and the blue diary on the other woman’s lap. The Doctor watched and swallowed hard—not everyone lived today.

“What?” he blinked at her.

“Future you. You gave River your sonic. Why? It was yours, not one you built for her like mine or Mum’s or Aunt Martha’s.”

The Doctor stared at his eldest for a long moment then reached out and grabbed the future sonic screwdriver. “Oh, Jenny, you’re brilliant!”

“Yes.” She grinned at him. “I know. So, if you use the sonic to download—”

“—her consciousness into the Library mainframe—”

“—then she lives on, yeah?”

“Yeah.” He grinned again and gave Professor River Song her final goodbye.

“This way,” Jenny whispered, “she’ll live with her memories as they are. She won’t be smoothed out with the Ripples.” 

The Doctor downloaded the neural relay into CAL, not one bit surprised his future self thought of this. After all, he hated goodbyes. And if this ending was more than a goodbye, then at least Professor Song retained her memories.

He owed her that much, at least.

“What I don’t understand,” Jenny said, “is why the Ripples didn’t affect her.”

“I don’t know,” he admitted.

He left the screwdriver there as well as the diary. He supposed he could look at it. Read ahead—read a story he didn’t know and wouldn’t ever know. But as much as it tempted him, this diary belonged in a time that no longer existed.

Frankly, the Doctor was more than all right with that. The life he led now, the life he shared with Rose, was the only one he wanted.

“I don’t think we’ll ever know,” he added as they walked back to the platform. After a beat he added, “Your mum would’ve been devastated.” 

“I would’ve regenerated,” Jenny said far more confidently than he felt.

But there was a tinge of uncertainty to her words, to their parental bond. The same tinge that colored his when he insisted the same thing. Which was why they argued and why they hadn’t managed to decide anything by the time Professor Song arrived.

“Who was she?” he asked. “Can you see that…or could you?”

“A lost story,” Jenny whispered as they stepped onto the platform. “One who has a chance to rewrite her entire life.”

There were too many unknowns here, too many things he still didn’t understand and desperately needed to. Donna—where had his friend vanished to? Was she with the rematerialized four thousand upstairs in the Library? He hoped so. Oh, he hoped so.

Otherwise he effectively killed her for reasons he didn’t understand. What made him think transmatting her to the TARDIS was in any way a good idea?

And River Song. He didn’t know what she said to Jenny, but whatever it was was the same thing she said to Rose. His daughter had jerked back with the same resigned shock as he felt from his wife only minutes before.

Who was that woman to him? _Had_ that woman been to him was a better question.

It didn’t matter now, because he and Jenny both agreed—the Ripples smoothed out any other timeline. River Song, as she knew herself to be, was no more except in the date core of the Library with Charlotte and whoever else died because of the Vashta Nerada.

Memories intact and a life within every single book every created at her disposal. The Doctor hoped she found peace.

They rode the platform back to the main Library. The TARDIS could easily accommodate four thousand people. Rose no doubt already herded them inside. They’d drop these time-displaced souls on the nearest star base and be done with them.

He’d do far worse than let a woman he barely knew sacrifice herself to save the life he built. Selfish. Oh, he was old, so very old and so very, very selfish. A greedy mercenary when it came to protecting his family and the life he built with Rose.

Body heavy with that knowledge, he pressed his fingertips to his eyelids and wondered if he’d lived too long.

“She chose, Dad.” Jenny looked at him as the platform ascended. Her eyes, for someone so young, looked old and troubled. Far too much like his. “It was her choice, no one else’s. She wanted to remember her life as it was. And now she can. Now she’s in the database with Charlotte, she can.”

The Doctor smiled. “Yeah.”

“But she also has the chance at a life of her own, the choices and decisions everyone makes that were denied her.” Jenny shook her head, lips curled in a faint smile. “How many people have that?”

“Not many,” he agreed. “Yeah. Now come on, we have four thousand plus people to get off this Library before the Vashta Nerada enjoy a delayed meal.”


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And so it begins. Or continues. Well, it’s happening and there’s nothing anyone can do to stop it. Only control it. If you really think things like Time can be controlled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note on date: June 21 was the day Turn Left aired, but in 2008. I changed it to 2010 to more accurately reflect Rose’s missing year in season 1 and the expanded verse of my series. Also, so far as I can tell, doing so doesn’t affect the episodes Stolen Earth or Journey’s End.

**Pete’s World**  
“It worked!” Mickey shouted and hugged Jackie. They were the only two in the room as they tested and retested the cannon.

Five times now they aimed for their original world. Five times they hit their mark. The test cylinder didn’t disappear and didn’t return in a mangled mess of messiness.

“I’ll get everyone ready,” she promised. “We’ll leave in the morning.”

Mickey nodded and rubbed his eyes. They were jumping in fifteen hours and he needed sleep. And frankly fifteen hours of sleep sounded heavenly.

But they had no idea what they’d find on the other side of the Void. What caused the stars to go out or what condition they’d find their Earth. Assuming they all made it across the Void.

The Dimension Cannon was never meant to carry so many people.

“Please don’t let me blow up the universe,” he prayed to no one and everyone at once.

******  
Prime Universe**  
They dropped everyone off at the star base—which had no record of Professor River Song. When the Doctor asked Lux how he arrived at the Library, the other man looked blank for a moment and shrugged.

“Hired a pilot.” Lux dismissed with an impatient wave of his hand and walked into the star base with the four thousand plus rescued library patrons.

Rose had, indeed, organized everyone inside the TARDIS. Aušra Susan finally calmed but hadn’t wanted to be separated from either of them. By the time the Doctor and Jenny returned, she dozed in Rose’s arms as his beautiful, practical, and organized wife made sure no one was left behind the shadow filled Library.

Except Donna.

The Doctor shuddered. He didn’t know what happened to their friend and the fact he sealed her fate for reasons he didn’t understand sickened him.

“These are the missing people from the Library,” Lux announced as the commander of the star base greeted them. “I found all four thousand and twenty-two missing people.”

And now it looked as if Lux was about to take credit for all of it—the rescue, the transportation, everything. He sighed and scrubbed a hand down his face. The Doctor didn’t care about that. He cared about Donna.

“Anita, Miss Evangelista,” Rose said, stopping them just outside the TARDIS doors. “Who led this expedition?”

“I did,” Anita said as if it should’ve been obvious. 

“And Professor Song?” the Doctor asked. “What about her?”

“Who’s Professor Song?” Miss Evangelista asked in her low, timid voice.

“Are we the only ones who remember then?” Rose whispered beside him. “Anita told me River hired her for this expedition after she got out of jail. That it was her first archaeological expedition after she was released.”

“Why was Anita in prison?” he asked and took her hand. 

He noticed no one asked why he and Rose were on the planet, what they were doing in the Library, how they helped, or how they happened to be there for easy transport.

“I don’t know. She didn’t say,” Rose admitted, “and I didn’t ask.”

They returned to the TARDIS, quiet and empty now. Only the four of them—no Donna. It tore him apart, knowing he was responsible for their friend…

He clamped down on those emotions. On the loathing and hatred and the mystery of why any of it happened.

“Anita and Lux, Miss Evangelista…they didn’t remember her and they were with us.”

“I don’t know,” he admitted and settled against the console, tugging her forward, between his legs. “Maybe the TARDIS wants us to remember. Or something else does—the universe is a big, big place. Lots going on.” He sighed and shook his head. “I don’t know.”

“Can She do that?” Rose tilted her head to the side, nose scrunched up in that way he always found adorable. Lovable.

The Doctor didn’t have an answer—to anything at the moment.

“I don’t know, Rose. Time works in strange ways, sometimes we remember because we’re at the center of a change.” He ran a hand down his face and rubbed his eye. A faint headache gathered there and he knew it had to do with the Ripples.

It amazed him how different the universe felt when he wasn’t continually gripped by Time Ripples that altered his Time Sense and gave his wife nightmares of things that might’ve been.

“So like in that basement in Cardiff, with the Gelth?” Rose looked up at him and leaned a hip against the console, arms folded across her chest, head tilted. She watched him carefully and he didn’t need their marriage bond to know she worried for him.

Not that he deserved her worry. He killed Donna—through stupidity or neglect or carelessness he didn’t know, but it was his fault. He didn’t deserve any worry or concern. 

“Even though I wasn’t born in 1869, I could’ve died there because time isn’t linear, yeah?” She reached out and tangled her fingers with his. “Not when you’re traveling through time. So because we went back in time, it didn’t matter when I was born because I was physically there.”

The Doctor reached out and cupped her cheek. He remembered that basement so well; the first time he realized he might care for Rose Tyler as more than a simple companion.

Not that any of his companions were ever _simple_. He didn’t take _simple_.

Still, he’d taken her hand, and the smile on her face when she promised _together_ , promised to stay by his side—to go down fighting warmed his hearts even now.

He pulled her into his arms or she willingly stepped into his embrace, the Doctor didn’t know. All he knew was Rose in his arms and the comfort-reassurance-solace she gave. That he greedily took from her.

She hit him, very hard, on the shoulder. “You were going to sacrifice yourself!” 

“Ow!” He half-curled away from her and rubbed the spot she hit.

She folded her arms over her chest, stepped back to glare at him. “I know what you were thinking—you and Jenny. And don’t think I’m not going to yell at her, too!”

“I had to save those people, Rose!” He shot back.

She nodded. “Yes. I know. I was all on board with that. But by _dying_?”

The Doctor opened his mouth. Snapped it closed. “I would’ve regenerated,” he mumbled.

Rose narrowed her eyes. “You think that makes me feel better?” she hissed. “You were going to use your own brain, giant Time Lord Brain,” she snapped, “to transfer—what? Bodies? Consciousness?”

Rose stopped, eyes widening. “They were physically in the computer,” she realized slowly. “Their physical bodies were trapped in the transmat and their minds in the computer. So you were going to short out your own brain to mend the connections.”

The Doctor blinked. “Blimey, Jenny really does get her smarts from you.” He grinned widely. His wife was not fooled. 

Just as suddenly as she hit him, Rose wrapped her arms around him. She made a frustrated, angry noise in the back of her throat. “I thought we were past this. I know your plans are only spur of the moment, all improvisation and chance, but _God_.”

She pulled back and poked him in between his hearts. “Don’t do that! Take another minute and think of another way.”

“Rose.” He framed her face, tangled his fingers in her hair and kissed her hard. “I’ll always come back to you. For you. I can’t live without you, my hearts. Don’t you know that?” He pulled her back in his arms, settled her against him. The TARDIS’s gentle hum enveloped him, soothed his mind and along his nerves.

“Yes,” he finally admitted. “I was going to use myself as the transfer. But not because of any self-sacrificing tendencies I might have.”

She snorted.

“I wouldn’t,” he insisted. “Not if there was another way.” He pressed a kiss to her temple, felt the flash of love and anger at him. “I have far too much to live for.”

Her arms tightened around him.

“I did it,” he whispered, “because I didn’t want Jenny to regenerate—I’m still not sure she can.”

“And you thought you would?” she whispered. “Regenerate I mean.”

“Yes.” He said it confidently, but honestly he wasn’t completely sure…more like 96% certain. Maybe a little less.

Rose picked up on his uncertainty; he knew she did no matter how he tried to hide it from her. She shuddered and held onto him for a long moment. Finally she nodded and pulled back enough to look at him again.

“And the fact we still remember Professor Song?” Rose asked, brandy eyes dark with questions. “Even though time reset or smoothed out or whatever?” She shook her head, hands running down his arms, back up again. As if to assure herself he was with her and safe.

The Doctor understood that all too well.

 

Rose looked tired, drained, pale with deep bruises beneath her eyes and lines bracketing her mouth. The Doctor ran his thumbs under her eyes and pulled her close again. His wife was in his arms and his children were safe in their home; Rose put Aušra Susan down for a long overdue nap and his bond with her pulsed soft and gentle as she slept.

Jenny claimed she was hungry. Neither believed Jenny, but they all processed things their own way.

“Rose. My Rose.” His lips grazed the side of her neck and he breathed her in. “My hearts.”

“Shh, Doctor.” Her arms tightened around him and she held him as he clung to her. “I’m here. I’m here and not going anywhere. Ever.”

She promised so he believed her—Rose always kept her promises. Always returned to him.

But his hearts pounded; he wasn’t normally one to look back on a particular adventure and analyze it. Knowing the danger his family faced terrified him.

More than danger, but the very real possibility they could’ve ceased to exist.

“I can’t lose you,” he admitted, face buried in the crook of her neck. “I can’t lose any of you.”

“Doctor, you won’t. Jenny is as smart as you,” she breathed out a laugh that wafted over his skin. “Smarter. We’ve taught her the best we can. She’s smart and strong and won’t let anything stand in her way of what’s right.”

“That’s what terrifies me, Rose.” He couldn’t move away, held her tighter. “She’s too much like me. Us. Too willing to sacrifice to save others.”

“And if she weren’t,” Rose said softly. She pulled back, cupped his face and made him look at her. “If she weren’t, she wouldn’t be our daughter.”

The Doctor reluctantly nodded. “What did—what did Professor Song tell you? At the end.”

Rose looked at him, and he knew she wanted to keep it to herself so as not to hurt him. She brushed her fingertips over his temples and opened herself to him.

“She told me your name.”

He sucked in a breath. A million words crowded his tongue and stumbled over each other. “I’d never—you’re the only—that’s impossible—that can’t be—no. I only ever give my name to my wife. Only to you, Rose. No other, not any other woman, any other _being_ in this universe!”

“I know.” She kissed him, a press of her lips to his, just enough to stop his words. “I know. But in another timeline—in another universe where I’m not here or something happened…” Rose shook her head.

“Rose.” He said very seriously and very clearly. “You’re the only woman I love. Period. End of story. No matter what else happens or will happen or has happened. I only ever loved you-ever have loved you-ever will love you enough to want more.”

He took a breath and plowed on before she could utter a word. “I’ve had friends, best friends, family—a brother—but…but…and I’ve loved all of them, but you, Rose.”

Her lips curled, and she nodded. Rose breathed out a bit of her tension, he felt it release beneath his hands. “I know. _I know_.”

“I love you, my hearts.”

“And I love you, my Doctor.”

He simply held her. He wanted all of them together, wanted to make sure Jenny was all right and Aušra Susan was very much alive. He wanted his family close by, not simply on his TARDIS, but right there.

Then Rose’s mobile rang and they both jumped.

******  
Prime Universe**  
Jack Harkness had the mother of all mothers of a migraine. What sort of band from hell beat behind his eyes?

“Jack!” Martha shouted.

He slowly blinked open eyes that felt like they were about to fall out with eyelids that felt like sandpaper.

“Shh,” he managed and weakly batted Martha’s hand away.

“What happened?” she asked in a reasonably quieter voice. “You sorta—” her fingers brushed gently over his cheek—“faded there. I thought I was going to lose you.”

“Martha,” he breathed and tried a smile. It hurt. As did his teeth, his hair. Even his fingernails. Everything hurt.

Martha cleared her throat. Pressed her lips in a feather-light touch to his. “What happened?”

“Everything.”

He didn’t know where that assessment came from. He remembered watching Martha blink out of existence. The terror at losing her. At not knowing where she went or what happened.

How empty his hands felt when she disappeared from his grasp.

He remembered working with Torchwood Three in Cardiff for decades and decades with Ianto and…several other people he no longer knew. Always keeping a low profile, under Torchwood One’s radar and away from Yvonne Hartman’s greedy talons. 

He remembered waiting and waiting for a version of the Doctor he knew. Watching his younger self with the Doctor and Rose laughing and flirting with each other, and Mickey. He remembered being there and being that man as well as watching from afar.

And he remembered being in that grave, that horrible grave in Cardiff. Dying over and over and over with no end in sight because there was no one to save him. No Martha Jones, no John Hart…no Gray. Which caused the biggest paradox ever and why hadn’t the universe exploded?

He didn’t know but his head certainly was.

A cool cloth draped gently over his forehead and he sighed in relief. Martha’s fingers brushed down his cheek, soothing as much as the cloth did. Jack reached out and held her hand, clutching it like a lifeline.

“What happened?” Martha repeated. Though softly spoken, she used her doctor’s voice no one dared lie to.

“Either time just exploded,” he told her through a dry throat with a tongue that felt five times its normal size. “Or the Ripples finally smoothed themselves out.”

Martha’s fingers tightened on his. “I’ll call Rose.” She stood then paused. “Should I call everyone else, too?”

“I don’t know,” he admitted and it hurt to speak and to think and to admit he wasn’t sure what the hell happened.

Before he had the chance to do more than whimper in pain, Martha’s mobile rang.

“Tish?” she said immediately. “What’s happened?” Martha listened to her sister, eyes on him. “All right. I’m calling Rose now.”

“What?” Jack demanded and struggled to sit.

Instead of reprimanding him, Martha helped him. Damn it, whatever happened must be worse than he thought.

“Harriet Jones’s subspace network picked up something weird.” Martha took the cloth and held it in a tight fist, watching him with scared eyes. “She tried to call the Doctor, but neither he nor Rose answered. It went right to voicemail. She had Tish call me.”

Jack stood and held her, afraid to let her go. There was a lot he wanted to say to her. A lot he wanted her to know before…whatever happened, happened.

“Jack.” She pulled back and kissed him. Too fast, too short, but he kissed her back, hoping it was enough.

“I know, Martha.” He brushed his fingertips down her cheek. “Now call Rose. Looks like we have work to do.”

She grinned. “It’s always something.”

He nodded and instantly regretted it. Eyes closing on their own, he tried to relax his mind. He really wanted some sleep. Unfortunately, because of his unique situation, no drugs worked on him; sleeping aids, migraine meds, and morphine, were all out of the question.

Fan-bloody-tastic. 

******  
Prime Universe**  
The Doctor supposed he could eavesdrop, listen to Martha’s side of the conversation, but he hadn’t the energy. He was tired, so very tired. All he wanted to do was wrap himself around Rose and hold her. Never let go.

“We’re fine,” Rose said, still watching him. “Yeah. The Doctor and Jenny both say the Time Ripples smoothed themselves out. No.” She shook her head and squeezed his hand tighter. “No, I don’t know what happened. It’s…”

The Doctor gently took the phone from his wife. “Martha? Is Jack all right?”

“He’s got a migraine, can barely move.” Martha cleared her throat but her voice never wavered. “Something happened, didn’t it. Something to do with these Time Ripples we’ve experienced the past few years. I’ve never seen him like this, not even after Cardiff and Grey.”

She listed his vitals, clipped and sure, but they both knew she couldn’t see into his mind. Couldn’t see if there was any damage done to a fixed point in time. No medical machine ever could do that.

He wasn’t so sure he could.

“Tell him we’ll be there soon. What’s the day and time?”

“21 June 2010,” Martha said. “Ten…twenty-three. We’re in New York. Rose has the address.”

Nodding, he handed the mobile back to Rose. “We’ll be there, Martha,” she promised and ended the call.

The Doctor watched her shove the mobile into her pocket but didn’t move. He knew himself well enough to know he might not let them off this ship anytime in the near future.

Even for Jack.

“Don’t be like that.” Rose’s voice wasn’t hard, but calm and quiet. Soothing even as she pressed her lips to the underside of his jaw. “We’re all here. We’re here, the four of us…” she stopped and cleared her throat. “And our family is _safe_.”

Except Donna.

Donna wasn’t anywhere. And that guilt ate at him, the knowledge he transmatted her to the TARDIS only for that beam to be intercepted.

By whom, though? The Vashta Nerada? CAL? Her signature wasn’t in the Library, she wasn’t in the data banks...she wasn’t anywhere.

And suddenly the words refused to be tamped down, held back, ignored. The grief swallowed him and the dam he bottled all his emotions behind broke.

“I killed Donna.” The admission tore from him and made him sick. 

He tried to keep it in check, the fact the TARDIS continued to scan for her and the hope that offered, but it was right there. His fear and guilt and anger—not over a woman he didn’t know and now never would. Over what he’d done to a very dear friend.

“I set her on the transmat and sent her to her death,” he growled, guilt and self-hatred choking him. His fingers tightened on Rose’s hips even though he wanted to push her away. “And I don’t even know why!”

“You didn’t,” Rose said immediately. Forcefully. “She’s not dead, you hear me? We don’t know where Donna is.”

“Rose—”

“No!” She snapped. “You listen to me.” She jabbed him in the chest, between his hearts. “It could’ve been the Vashta Nerada who influenced you or something else in that library. There was something else there—couldn’t you feel it?”

The Doctor reluctantly nodded. “Yes. I don’t know what. But…yes.”

Rose nodded decisively and poked him again. “We don’t know why the Vashta Nerada were there or how they arrived or any of it.”

“True,” he reluctantly admitted.

“And we _will_ find Donna.” She sounded so adamant and so sure, he almost believed her. “You set the TARDIS to searching for her, and I know She’ll find Donna.”

The Doctor huffed a reluctant breath that might’ve been agreement and rested his forehead against hers. He felt her fear and worry, her uncertainty. Her fear for him and their children. Her determination.

Oh, he loved her determination.

“We’ll find her,” he agreed. And believed it. Because Rose did. And he believed in her.

“Dad!” Jenny’s voice echoed down the TARDIS corridors and over their bond. _“Dad!”_

He raced from the console room, Rose’s hand clasped in his. Jenny wasn’t in any of the living areas, the small semi-circle of rooms closest to the console. The Doctor followed the thread of her bond and found her in the library.

“Jenny?” He stopped dead.

Beside him, Rose stared in shocked disbelief. _“Donna?”_

Donna Noble lay on the couch, hand tucked beneath her head, eyes closed. Winston curled atop her hip, comfortable and content as he balefully eyed the Doctor. Donna looked none the worse for wear; there was no tension knotting her shoulders and no obvious signs of distress.

She simply…slept. On the sofa. With the cat.

“But—how?” He looked from Donna to Jenny and back again. “We searched her room.”

But he hadn’t scanned the _interior_ of the TARDIS.

They searched through the people they rescued, assuming Donna’d be with them if she rematerialized from the interrupted transmat beam. When she wasn’t, when she hadn’t appeared or raced across the Library or at the very least spoken with Rose or Jenny (even if she ignored him for what he’d done), the Doctor set to scanning the Library, the star base, anywhere for Donna’s DNA.

“Donna?” Rose repeated and knelt in front of her.

“Rose—careful.”

She nodded but reached out and gently brushed a strand of hair off Donna’s cheek. Donna didn’t move. Winston, however, sniffed haughtily and leaped off Donna, stalking across the floor as if he wanted nothing to do with them now that they were here.

His job protecting Donna was finished.

“Jenny?” the Doctor asked, though he didn’t turn his attention from Rose. “What happened?”

“I just found her here. I came in here, wandered in, just looking around,” Jenny said, clearly flustered, “and there she was.”

“Just…just laying like this?” he asked, disbelief in the situation making his voice rise. “Sleeping? Here in the… _library_?”

“Donna,” Rose said a little louder. “Donna, wake up.”

Nothing happened. Frowning, the Doctor took out his sonic and scanned her. Everything came back normal. No sleep aids, drugs, hypnosis, or telepathic interference, nothing.

“Nothing shows up on the sonic,” he said, still frowning at his screwdriver. “She’s just…sleeping. Dreaming.”

Just as he said that, Donna woke up. Rather violently. Rose scrambled back, and the Doctor grabbed her, hauling her up next to him. Arm around her waist, he held her tightly to him, screwdriver pointed at Donna as if she were a threat.

“Turn left,” Donna gasped, hands flying to her head. “Make sure I turn left.”

“Donna?” Rose said, more cautiously this time. She moved slightly away from him, and the Doctor wasn’t ashamed to admit he reluctantly let her go.

Given all that happened today—was it really just one day?—he thought he was allowed to be reluctant. And cautious. And concerned. And loads of other words that made him want to hold Rose in his arms and never (quite possibly ever) let her go.

“Rose?” Donna blinked, frowned, and blinked again. “What happened? Did it work? Did we fix it?”

“Did what work?” Rose asked, still speaking slowly and evenly as if afraid Donna might leap up and attack her.

Donna blinked again. She shook her head, looked from Rose to Jenny then to him, and stood. She hugged him tight for a long moment. Then pulled back and smacked him in the back of the head. “You!”

He rubbed his head, even as he grinned happily at her. “You’re alive,” he breathed out, relieved. “You’re alive!”

“You are, too!” She hugged him again, tight, then jerked away once more. “You! You sent me off, beamed me into the TARDIS!”

“Look, Donna,” he began.

She rolled right over him. “Why’d you do that? Did you think I couldn’t handle what happened in that library? Did you think I wouldn’t do what needed to be done?”

“Donna!” the Doctor shouted. “I’m sorry.”

Donna’s eyes widened and she snapped her mouth closed, narrowed her eyes. Crossed her arms over her chest and leaned slightly away from him. “Who are you and what did you do with the Doctor?”

Rose snorted. “Donna,” she asked cautiously, “have you been napping in here the entire time?”

“Time?” Donna frowned and her gaze turned inward, unfocused. “I was…I was on that platform. Then I was with Gramps.” She shook her head. “No, then I was…on a hill? I was walking up a hill I think. No, I was on a hill watching the stars—with Gramps?”

Donna shook her head again and rubbed her temples. “I don’t know,” she said in a low, uneven voice.

“You turned right,” Jenny said. But she wandered around the library now. Not wandered, purposefully searched for something, he realized. “Dad,” she called from near the unlighted fireplace. “Look at this.”

The Doctor turned and, though reluctant to leave Rose’s side, crossed to where Jenny stood. She stared at the floor, her own sonic out and scanning. Hidden by one of the settees, Winston, all puffed-out fur and feline mistrust, hissed at a giant dead beetle.

Jenny looked up at him as he stepped around the furniture. “This thing has time swirling around it.”

“What the hell is that?” Donna shouted.

“It’s a time beetle,” the Doctor said, not looking away.

_“A what?”_

He ignored her and crouched beside the thing, pulling out his glasses. Jenny crouched next to him and gently lifted Winston, soothing him with long slow strokes down his back. The Doctor took Jenny’s sonic and read her conclusions. They confirmed what he sensed. What, he supposed, Jenny also sensed.

“It’s part of the Trickster’s Brigade,” he added. “See?” He held Jenny’s sonic out for her to look at the readings. “That there, the spike—how it’s uneven, lots of variables there that gives it that hill and valley look to the readouts.”

“And the Trickster’s Brigade is…?” Rose asked curiously.

He looked up at her, cold fear hollowing his stomach. “They interfere with time, change things in little ways to have their own outcome.”

Standing, the Doctor toed the dead beetle. It didn’t move, but Winston hissed angrily and wiggled out of Jenny’s arms to stalk back to Donna. Not that the Doctor expected the beetle to move, but one never knew. Winston stood guard in front of Donna as if he thought it _might_.

“How’d it get onboard the TARDIS?” Rose asked. “I thought you said nothing could beam onboard.”

“I don’t know,” he admitted.

“It came with Aunt Donna,” Jenny said and swayed again.

The Doctor caught her, but she didn’t need his help. She stood steady if a little uneasy. One hand rubbed her temple and he felt a flash of pain from her.

“What do you mean,” Donna ground out. _“It came with me?”_

“It was on your back,” Rose said, horrified. “I saw it in the Library.” She shook her head, met his gaze then turned to Donna. “Not saw it, saw it; I thought I did. I thought there was something else, something there, but whenever I looked, there was nothing.”

“Why’d the Trickster’s Brigade target Aunt Donna?” Jenny asked. “It waited until we landed at the Library—that’s where it found her.”

The Doctor pocketed his glasses and ran a hand down his face. “I don’t know. They want to change time; change a life in tiny little ways. Most times, the universe just compensates.”

“No, but I was there. I was in the Library,” Donna insisted. “Nothing’s changed.” But she frowned. “I don’t think.”

“But it did,” Jenny countered. “You turned right. I know you did.”

She rubbed her temples with both hands, fingers digging into her skin.

“You turned right when you should’ve turned left.” Jenny frowned. “When you already had turned left. When you turned to accept the job with—with…to save Dad. When you…”

“Jenny?” Rose closed the distance between them and bent slightly to catch their daughter’s gaze. “Ease out of it, love,” she said and covered Jenny’s fingers with her own. “Don’t look; don’t look at it. Look at me.”

Jenny met Rose’s gaze, allowed her fingers to drop from her head and grasped Rose’s. Tight. The Doctor eased Rose to the side and replaced her fingers with his, the lightest touch possible on his daughter’s skin to spark contact. 

“Jenny, let me see.”

She did, in a tumble of impressions and half-remembered images and _wrongness_ of it all. He didn’t understand everything, and filed away the images for later.

“What do you mean, Jenny?” Rose asked quietly.

The Doctor eased out of Jenny’s mind to find mother and daughter where he left them. Disoriented for a moment, he blinked to clear the visions. Though his mind’s eye no longer jumbled together in a mad race of Jenny’s thoughts, it lingered.

The fear and hopelessness and burning hatred and fierce heat contrasted with flashes of light and hope. Was this what his daughter saw all the time? Not the filigrees of time streams he did, but this jumble of what ifs?

He needed to ask her, maybe follow one of her time visions. Not now.

“How do you know Donna turned right?” Rose continued in that same quiet, soft voice. “What’s that mean?”

Jenny shook her head and gestured helplessly. She looked frightened, he realized, and held out his hand for her. She didn’t hesitate and hugged him tight.

“Jenny?”

She stepped back and turned to Donna, hugged her, too.

“You weren’t there,” Jenny whispered.

“Shh, Jenny,” Donna cooed as if Jenny were a baby. “I’m all right. It’s all right now.”

“But you did,” Jenny insisted, voice catching. “You turned right. You didn’t turn left and meet Dad. You turned right.” 

“Turn right.” Donna stared at the giant beetle, then shook her head. But when she spoke, it was still with the same distant tone. “That’s what it said.”

“What said?” the Doctor asked. “Donna, what?”

“This voice. I heard it, it said _turn right. Turn right and change your fate. Turn right, and never meet that man. Turn right, and change the world._ ”

“And you did,” Jenny stated. She shuddered and wrapped her arms around herself. “You did and everything changed.”

“Was it the Time Ripples?” Rose asked and reached for his hand. He didn’t need her touch to feel her fear, but he did need her touch. “Whatever turning right did to Donna, was it the Ripples?”

“I don’t know,” he admitted. “Donna, what do you remember?”

“It’s all fading now,” she admitted. “But there was this world. It was hot, very hot, and…and you!” She looked at Rose. “I saw you there. But not this you, you were older. No.” Donna frowned. “Harder. And you had the TARDIS, but there was no Doctor.”

Rose shivered and licked her lips. “What world, Donna?”

He turned sharply. Looked at her. “Rose?”

“I’ve seen a lot of worlds,” she said softly. “I’ve dreamed about them.” She tore her gaze from Donna to him and he saw the troubled, worried look in her gaze he often saw when she woke from a nightmare.

A Time Ripple nightmare. When he held her close and soothed her best he could. When he promised nothing could change their life. When he vowed to himself he’d do anything, _anything_ , to fight whatever tried to change the life he and Rose built together.

“I dreamt I jumped onto Earths devastated by nuclear war and by famine.” She licked her lips, voice hoarse. “By Dalek invasion and by plague. Universes with no you, Doctor, universes I had to cross in order to find ours. To find you.”

“No,” Donna whispered. “This wasn’t that. This was just hot. I think. And empty. Not a lot of people around.”

Rose tilted her head. “Were there…” she swallowed. “Were there humans, then?” She cleared her throat but when she spoke again it was still hoarse and thin. “I mean were there other creatures around, these stone creatures?”

Donna slowly shook her head and admitted, “I’m not sure. I can’t remember much. It’s all fading. But you were there, and you insisted I had to change the world. You—you told me…” she closed her eyes and whispered, “You told me it was because of me you were there. You told me something else, too…”

“What?” the Doctor asked, voice rising as he felt it.

What, he wasn’t sure, but it was there, teasing him—tormenting him. Jenny moved closer, crowded by him as if she knew. As if she knew far better than he how close they’d come to losing their family.

“Donna,” he insisted, voice strident, “what?”

“Bad wolf.” Donna opened her eyes and stared at Rose. “You told me, made me repeat it. You told me to remember two words, only two: _Bad Wolf_.”

The world closed in on him, suffocating and choking and he looked wildly from Donna to Rose and back again.

“Bad Wolf?” Rose repeated, stunned. “But…but that….that’s impossible. That’s—” she shook her head and stood straighter. “That’s…but Anita. She told me the story of the amaroq.”

“What’s an amaroq?” Donna asked but it lacked her normal forceful tone.

“It’s a wolf.” Rose swallowed and met his gaze. “It’s just a story of a wolf. But what she said, about the wolf knowing everything in the People’s hearts—then River. The legend of the Bad Wolf.”

“Mum?” Jenny asked in a small voice. “What’s that mean?”

_“I am the Bad Wolf.”_

“Rose.” Mouth dry the Doctor tried to stop her. Hands on her arms, fingers tight around her marriage tattoos, he tried to find the words to stop her. But his vocabulary was as dry as his mouth, as caught up in fear and trepidation. “Rose!”

_“I create myself. I take these words; scatter them in time and space. A message to lead myself…here.”_

“Mum?” Jenny’s voice, louder now, seemed to pierce through to Rose.

“Jenny.” Rose turned and hugged her with one arm, the other hand still clasped tight in his. “Shh, it’s all right, love. It’s okay. I’m all right, I’m here.”

“What’s the Bad Wolf, Doctor?” Donna asked in almost a whisper. “And what’s that have to do with me?”

He didn’t look at her, didn’t turn away from his wife. Couldn’t make his fingers release her arm or force his feet to move from his family. The Doctor wanted to hold Aušra Susan and insulate the four of them in the TARDIS in the Vortex where nothing could touch them.

But the words ripped from him as if they needed to be spoken. Which was ridiculous and he knew it, but when they echoed around him, he was just as surprised to hear them as he was to realize he spoke them.

“It’s the end of the world.”


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bad Wolf, missing stars, alternate universes…it’s all converging. But hey, at least the Time Ripples stopped. Right? What else can…no, not even finishing that sentence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay, I was sick last week and didn't have the energy required to look this chapter over once more.

**Prime Universe**  
“End of the world?” Donna scoffed but it sounded hollow. “Overdramatic much?”

“Donna,” the Doctor snapped in warning.

“It’s a long story,” Rose said and gently released Jenny. She ran a hand down Jenny’s arm, brushed strands of hair off her face. “All right, love?”

Jenny nodded, long slow movements of her head. Rose didn’t believe her. She smiled reassuringly at her daughter and opened their bond. Pushing all the calmness she didn’t quite feel and the knowledge they’d figure it all out and get through this, Rose made sure to wrap it all in the love she felt for her children.

“I know, Mum.” Jenny met her gaze. _“I believe in our family, too.”_

She pushed it through their connection with such fervent belief, Rose blinked in shock. She hadn’t realized she’d be able to communicate with her children like that, too. Actual telepathic sentences. But Jenny winced in pain and rubbed her temples. What had connecting like that cost her daughter?

“We’ll figure it out, Jenny,” she promised. Kissed Jenny’s temple. “There’s a reason for Bad Wolf, there always is. And that reason is meant to guide me to where I need to be. It’s not to scare us. Yeah?”

“Yeah.” Jenny cleared her throat. “Yeah, Mum.”

Rose felt her resolve tighten, saw her chin rise in stubbornness, and knew they’d be all right. If for no other reason than none of them saw any other way for this to end.

“Let’s get to Jack and Martha.” Rose looked at the Doctor. “We’ll make sure Jack’s all right then plan out our next step.”

Rose knew he didn’t want to—wanted to stay in the Vortex and never again become part of events. Didn’t want to know what Bad Wolf meant, not here and now. Not when they finally settled into their family and were so very happy.

Rose refused to let his fear overrule his logic. Refused to let _her_ fear overrule _her_ logic.

“You’d be bored in three days,” she said aloud.

His gaze didn’t waver, his face set. Her Doctor was scared. Rose offered a small, weak smile he tried to return. She knew he blamed himself for all this—the psychic paper’s message, falling under what was, most likely, the Trickster’s influence. Transmatting Donna.

The still beating fear he killed Donna.

Putting their family in danger.

Keeping Jenny close, she carefully, very slowly and with every ounce of concentration she possessed opened herself to the Doctor. Let him see her fear yes, but her determination, too.

Let him focus on that.

 _“I love you,”_ she told him though her head pounded with the effort. _“We’ll get through this—”_

“Together.” He nodded. Watched her, eyes nearly black with fear and determination. 

“We’ll figure it out there. On Earth.” Rose hoped she sounded far more confident than she felt.

“Right.” The Doctor pulled her into his arms and held tight. Reached out with a hand to, presumably, grab Jenny’s. “Yes. Earth.” He nodded again but made no move to release them.

Rose hugged him back, felt his shuddering sigh against her neck and suddenly wanted a shower. The dust—or imagined dust—from the Library clung to her. Maybe not so much the dust but the running and the death and the knowledge that the future wasn’t always what she envisioned. Or hoped for.

She shivered and the Doctor held her tighter. Pressed his lips to her neck.

“We can wait,” he whispered. “I won’t land and we won’t be in their timeline.” The Doctor paused, lips against her temple. _“Rest. I need you, Rose. I need to hold you.”_

_“Doctor…”_

“You can take a shower,” he offered in a last ditch attempt.

“Tempting,” she agreed and pulled back. Cupping his cheek, she brushed his temple. _“But no. We won’t do that to Martha and Jack.”_

“Rose.”

She kissed him, a brief touch—just enough to quiet him. Jenny stepped back, but her resolve didn’t waver. Pride warmed Rose and she grinned at her family.

“Let’s land. Figure out what’s going on. Stop the end of the world.” Despite her confident words, Rose was unable to stop the shudder of fear that slithered up her spine.

_Something was coming._

It echoed in her head and through her blood and she knew she wasn’t strong enough to stop it from vibrating along her bond with the Doctor or Jenny. Rose looked around the warm coral room, _their library_ , with their trinkets and photos and signs of life. Of their family. Rose closed her eyes and breathed in the scent of home.

Not that horrid dead place.

“I’ll get Aušra Susan, then,” the Doctor agreed.

He kissed Jenny’s forehead then touched his lips to hers. She caught his gaze, saw the uncertainty there, and tried to smile. Whatever happened, they’d face it together.

“Yeah,” he breathed and offered a slight smile. “Together.”

“It really freaks me out when you two do your telepathy thing,” Donna muttered. But she rubbed her hands up and down her arms as if she were cold and looked longingly at the library door.

“Mum?” Jenny asked in a small voice. Her gaze lingered on the empty doorway the Doctor retreated through. Then she cleared her throat and said stronger, “If you’re the Bad Wolf, then what’s Dad?”

“What makes you think your father has a name, Jenny?”

Jenny leveled a looked at her. Rose sighed and debated telling her what the Doctor’s enemies called him. Hadn’t she been the one who insisted on honesty? Yes. Yes, that was definitely her.

“The Destroyer of Worlds,” Rose said quietly so Donna didn’t hear. “The Bringer of Darkness…the Oncoming Storm.”

“Was that from the Time War?” Jenny asked.

Rose nodded, a slight movement. She took Jenny’s hand, forced her lips to curve into a semblance of a smile. “When we get out of this, Jenny, when we figure it all out— _and we will_ —we’ll sit down and tell you all about it. Yeah?”

Her daughter didn’t look convinced, but she didn’t look suspicious, either. Rose frowned, studied her. No, she wasn’t certain what Jenny looked like, what emotions she felt. Their bond was open and vibrant a pulsing purple-blue, but it was also jumbled.

As if Jenny, herself, didn’t know what she felt.

Or, Rose realized as cold dread spread through her, like if her daughter’s Time Sense once more saw far too many what ifs. What had the Doctor called told her about the Time War?

_The Could-Have-Been King with his Army of Meanwhiles and Neverweres_

Swallowing hard, though her mouth remained dry and her throat closed, Rose hugged Jenny hard. “I won’t let anything bad ever happen to you, Jenny. Not if I can help it.”

“I know, Mum.” Jenny pulled back and nodded, decisive. “We’ll protect the family.”

 ********  
Rose slipped into their bedroom with its floating curtains and the vista view of a valley of flowers. She said it was to change her top—Aušra’s slobber was all over the blouse. Quickly tossing the soiled material into the basket and pulling out a pink one, she hurriedly slipped it over her head.

She didn’t want the Doctor looking for her. Not because she didn’t think spending an hour or more in his arms wasn’t a fine idea, she most definitely did. Oh, she wanted to feel his skin against hers, to make love with him and feel their bond burst to overflowing.

There were more important things to do.

The TARDIS, bless Her, already set out Rose’s current letter box, along with paper and pen. A sob caught in her throat.

_My Doctor,  
I love you. No matter what happens, remember that. Always._

_I love you. This isn’t your fault, whatever we’re about to face. Bad Wolf doesn’t mean end of the world, it means I need to be where I’m needed most—_ **we** _need to be where_ **we’re** _needed most._

_I love you. And that’s all that matters. There are no words to describe how much, the depth of love I feel or the enormity of it. You changed my life but you also touched my soul. And for however long we have, whether this is the end or we have the next hundred years, remember that._

_I love you. You’re a part of my soul. Nothing can ever change that._

_We’re in this together and together we’ll stop it._

_Yours always,  
Your Rose_

She folded the note and slid it carefully into the box then hastily wiped her cheeks dry. She grabbed her concealer and dabbed a little under her eyes to remove streaked mascara and was suddenly glad she wore less makeup than when she first traveled with the Doctor.

The TARDIS hummed around her and the curtains snapped in the wind. Rose looked around their bedroom, pieces of their life scattered everywhere. Across the back of her desk chair lay a leather jacket she never saw before. Rose frowned but grabbed the blue leather and slipped it on. Its weight settled easily over her shoulders.

“I’ll be back,” she promised—herself, the TARDIS, the absent Doctor, the universe. “We both will.”

 ******  
** Pete’s World  
Mickey Smith took one last look around the Third Sub-Basement of Torchwood Tower. It’d been his home for far too months many to keep track. The drawings on the walls next to the maps of London and the underground tunnels this world’s original Torchwood carved parallel to The Tube.

He wouldn’t miss any of it.

“I don’t know how this many people punching through universal walls will work,” he admitted to the fifteen people in front of him. “Last time we did it, we didn’t worry about collapsing universes.”

They hadn’t known about that until the Doctor pointed it out. Mickey should’ve known, though—he should’ve realized how dangerous it was. If the Doctor said travel between parallel worlds was impossible, it should’ve been a hint at least.

One person—Rose—jumping through when the stars started disappearing was one thing. Twenty of them all at once? Mickey didn’t know how it was all going to work. If it could.

“Have you convinced anyone else to join us?” Isaac asked.

“Who you see here is who’ll be coming with us.” Mickey stopped before his voice broke.

It wasn’t nearly as many as he’d have liked. And even those who believed him and Jackie, who trusted them when it came to a parallel world, refused. They still had family here or they still believed in the good fight.

Someone had to remain and rebuild once they saved the multiverse, after all.

He wasn’t risking his family. Not when he knew there was a better world waiting for them.

“We have thirty minutes until the Cannon is up to full power. If you have anyone who changes their mind, or if you change yours, now’s the time.”

He waited and everyone nodded. No one left. A couple pulled out their mobiles and tried to contact loved ones. The network still functioned, despite the breakdown in government. Mickey didn’t even want to know how that happened. But he supposed humans always found a way to survive—to contact their loved ones.

He rubbed his forehead, which continued to pound.

“Still?”

He looked up and smiled. “Yeah. Tension headache.”

She nodded but didn’t look convinced. He told her about the dreams he had, of another world where Jake lived and Rose continued to jump through different worlds, trying to find the Doctor. Of some woman named Donna Noble who apparently held the key to all of it.

“Mickey?” Jackie looked at him and nodded. “It’s just us.”

“Have everything?” he asked softly so no one else heard.

“Yeah.” Jackie’s hand drifted to her pack. “Everything I need.”

Which meant photos and precious stones and gold. Things she convinced Pete to convert after Rose jumped. Just in case, she said. Just in case they needed to run, paper money wasn’t any good to them.

“All right then.” Mickey looked at the small group. “Twenty minutes. Everyone in position?”

 ******  
** Prime Universe  
The Doctor strapped Aušra in the baby papoose and she snuggled against him. Still cranky from her aborted nap, and still afraid to let him out of her sight, she refused Rose and clung to the Doctor.

Rose didn’t blame her.

“Should we leave Aušra with Francine?”

Rose ran her hand over her baby’s fine brown hair and kissed the back of her head. She didn’t want to leave her, but was it safer with Francine than with them? After what happened at the Library, after what _could’ve_ happened, _could_ have been, Rose wasn’t so sure.

“We could bring all of them into the TARDIS,” Jenny said.

Rose looked up and caught her eldest’s gaze. The blue-grey looked steadily back at her with flinty determined. “Safer than in London, on the streets. Have them inside here, keep them all…” she trailed off and tilted her head. “Safe,” she finished, frowning.

“Jenny?” the Doctor asked.

“Nothing, Dad. It’s not clear.”

“The Ripples?” Rose heard the concern in the Doctor’s voice, the sharpness. “You shouldn’t be experiencing them anymore.”

He stepped forward, but Rose knew he was reluctant to leave her side. She mentally nudged him and he closed the distance between him and Jenny. Brushed his fingers over her temples. They shuddered in tandem, which freaked Rose out a little.

Watching carefully, Rose crossed the grating to where her family stood. Aušra remained quiet, sucking on the Doctor’s tie as if whatever the rest of her family saw was not important to her.

“Jenny? Love, what do you see?”

“I don’t know, Mum.” She looked up, but her fingers still brushed the Doctor’s temples and his hadn’t moved from hers, either. Their combined connection thrummed along Rose’s nerves. Or maybe it was her own fear about what lay ahead.

Rose licked her lips. “Let’s get to New York, first. Find out if Jack’s okay.”

The Doctor held her gaze, his affection and love for her a strong beat. Stronger than her fear, stronger even than his.

“Jenny?” He looked expectantly at her, and she nodded.

“I’ll tell them to be prepared,” Rose said and pulled out her mobile. 

She sat in her designated seat even if Aušra snuggled with her father. But with Jenny to help pilot the TARDIS with just the two of them flying was easier. They usually laughed and danced around the console in a coordinated twirl.

Today they moved stiffly, circling the console with synchronized movements that spoke of fear and determination.

“Donna?” She looked up at the other woman who continued to frown down at the grating. “Want to call your gramps? Shaun?”

“Yeah.” She nodded but move. “Yeah.”

As the Doctor and Jenny raced around the console, Aušra watching wide-eyed and fascinated, Rose dialed Francine.

“What’s happened?” Francine demanded the second she answered.

Rose blinked, frowned. “How do you know something’s happened?”

Francine snorted. “Rose Tyler, I’ve been part of this family for too long now not to know the signs. Sarah Jane’s called twice in the last week alone with weird sightings in the countryside. Doris insists on daily communication to share information on anything out of place, not that any of us have seen anything, and Alistair’s been in meetings for the last five days.”

Rose opened her mouth then closed it, at a complete loss. “Did they say why? Did they find anything?”

“No, but there’s extra security at UNIT, even the spa construction. Keisha’s having nightmares again, but she can’t say what they’re about. Tish and Harriet Jones have been locked in meetings for the last 36 hours and I’m not sure it’s all campaign stuff, either.”

Tish called Martha. Tish called Martha on Harriet’s orders because they’d been trapped in that stupid Library and somehow the Time Ripples cut them off from the rest of the universe…she caught the Doctor’s gaze and held it.

“Francine, gather everyone. _Everyone._ What’s the day and time right now where you are?”

“It’s…16:02; 21 June 2010.” Francine’s voice wavered but she didn’t break.

Rose had never been so proud of her than in that moment. What a long way from the angry woman they first had dinner with all years ago when Martha introduced one half of her family to the other.

“Good. All right.” Rose took a breath but her mind raced too fast and her heart thudded. “I don’t care what they’re doing, but we can only make one stop. Have everyone to your house by 16:30. No later.”

“Rose.”

Rose’s brain skidded to a stop at Francine’s very serious, suddenly very calm tone. She met the Doctor’s gaze once more, fingers tight on her mobile.

“We’ll figure it out, Francine. I promise.”

Francine snorted. “Course you will. Daft, the lot of you. I was going to say, be careful. I don’t want to lose any of my family.”

Choked up at the heartfelt words, at Francine’s soft, quiet understanding, she nodded. “You won’t.” But the promise, no matter how heartfelt, barely made it past the lump in her throat. “I’ll call Sarah Jane. She…” might have information they needed. “You just get everyone else together. If we need to get you onboard the TARDIS, it’ll be best if you’re all in one place.”

“We’ll be ready.”

Rose rang off and dialed Sara Jane’s number.

“Rose?” Sarah asked when she instantly picked up.

“Something’s coming, Sarah.”

To her credit, Sarah Jane simply said, “I know. We’ll be ready. I have Mr. Smith on it and I’m in contact with Alistair in London and Martha in New York. If I hear anything, I’ll ring you.”

“Thanks.” Rose swallowed but her mouth was too dry. “Everyone’s gathering at Francine’s. We’re picking them up.” She stopped and looked at Jenny. Her daughter nodded. “The streets aren’t safe, Sarah. Whatever you do stay out of the streets.”

“I’m not leaving,” her friend said as stubbornly as Rose anticipated. “But I’ll send Luke and his friends to Francine’s. Keep my boy safe, Rose.”

“As I can.” The promise held weight and Rose looked from Jenny to Aušra.

As she ended the call with Sarah, her mobile rang. Rose looked at the display, but it read blank. No incoming number even though the mobile clearly rang in her hand. Cautiously, she hit accept.

“Hello?”

Nothing. Nothing but static. The same static they heard several times now, on her mobile, in the TARDIS, even Jenny heard it. Rose looked up, met the Doctor’s gaze.

“Hello?” she asked again as the TARDIS materialized.

Static…and then silence. The call just…ended. Rose knew it wasn’t the end of whatever tried to contact her.

Mum? Mickey? Hope bloomed in her chest, only for her to tamp it down. She had that hope too many times for it to be real any more, and yet every time something out of the ordinary, even for them, happened Rose thought…maybe, this time.

“We’re here.” The Doctor said and held out his hand for her. “Ready?”

“Not even a little,” Rose admitted. But she smiled at him and took his hand. Looked over her shoulder at Jenny and nodded to her daughter. “Donna?” she asked, meeting the other woman’s gaze. “Get ahold of everyone?”

“Yeah. Told Gramps and Mom to get to Francine’s. Mom probably won’t listen, but Gramps’ll go. Couldn’t reach Shaun. He’s not answering.”

“Francine will take care of it.” Rose paused. “Want her to drag Sylvia out?”

Donna mutely nodded.

Rose pulled out her mobile and quickly typed in the message.

_Donna can’t find Shaun. Sylvia giving Donna hard time. Drag her to yours if possible. Don’t wait._

Well. Apparently end of the world made her all doom and gloom. Fantastic. Rose pocketed the mobile.

The door opened and Martha entered. She looked ashen, worried. “UNIT called. I need to get into base. Jack’s—” she backed out and waved to the couch where Jack lay down. “What’s going on?”

“The Time Ripples seemed to have stopped,” the Doctor began. “But now it looks as if something’s coming.”

“Something?” Jack asked in a terribly weak voice from the couch. Rose watched him struggle to sit. Martha rushed to his side to help him, supporting him almost entirely.

“What?” Martha asked. “What happened to make the Ripples stop?”

“Later,” Rose promised. She met Martha’s gaze and knew the other woman saw everything Rose tried to hide. The fear for a future that wasn’t going to happen now. A future Rose was not a part of. A future without her family.

“Doc?” Jack held his head but his eyes looked hard and ready. Always prepared.

“Went to the Library, the planet,” the Doctor said and squeezed her hand tight. “The Trickster’s Brigade caught Donna in one of their webs.”

“Trickster’s Brigade?” Jack shuddered. Clutched his head. “They tried to change the course of President Roosevelt—infect him with a parasite and have the Nazi’s win World War Two.”

“They wanted the Doctor dead,” Rose said and drew in a shuddering breath. “Tried to use Donna to do it.”

“What do you mean?” Martha demanded as she pulled on her boots.

“Created a parallel universe around her.” The Doctor looked at her, scrubbed a hand down his face. She felt his anger, hopelessness, loss and squeezed his hand tighter. “One where she didn’t meet me.”

Rose heard oh so clearly what he didn’t say. What Donna hadn’t said—maybe hadn’t realized. Without Donna there that Christmas Day, without her there to stop him, he’d have died. He’d have drowned the Raconoss and drowned himself.

“Wow.” Jack stood on shaky legs but looked impressed. “An entire parallel universe created around you. Donna, not everyone can say that.”

“I’d rather not myself,” she shot back, but it lacked her normal bite.

“What’s coming?” Jack asked and swayed.

“Bad Wolf.” The words ripped from Rose and she swore the echo reverberated across the universe. It did frighten her, no matter what she said to Jenny.

“Bad Wolf?” Martha shuddered and stopped, swallowed hard and stared at Rose. “How do you know?”

“Apparently in Donna’s world.” The Doctor eyed the other woman. “Rose met her. Not my Rose, a Rose who never returned…”

_To me._

Rose heard the unspoken words all too clearly. 

“I need to go.” Martha stood in front of Jack for a moment. She hugged him tight, backed from his embrace, turned. “I have my mobile. Keep me updated. On everything.”

“Stay safe, Martha,” Rose said and hugged her friend.

Martha nodded, but didn’t verbally agree. No false promises. She hugged Donna, Jenny, and the Doctor. Kissed Aušra. Then turned sharply for the door and left without another word. Rose swallowed and willed herself not to think it, not to give credence to the feeling heavy in her heart.

This was not the last time she’d see Martha Jones. It absolutely was not.


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Universal Train through Time and Space part 3 OR: What’s on the Other Side

They landed outside Francine’s house. Home base, Rose called it. Holding Aušra Susan tight, one hand cupping his little girl’s head, the Doctor agreed. Felt it deep inside him. Belonging.

Married didn’t mean _settling_. Family didn’t mean _staying still_.

They meant the place he and his own family gathered to see those they loved. He breathed deeply of the cool June air on a deserted street in a posh London neighborhood and nodded. Yes. Family.

His friends were the best part of him. Became his family. Because of Rose.

The Doctor turned to look at his wife and took Rose’s hand. Despite the danger and the world-ending message and the not knowing, he took this moment. He _needed_ this moment.

“I love you,” he whispered. Kissed her temple for a long, lingering moment. “My hearts.”

Rose smiled at him, soft around the corners of her mouth, face relaxing for that beat. The moment they allowed themselves.

“And I you, my Doctor. Always.” Rose’s hand drifted up his arm, fingers brushing his temples. She rested her head on his shoulder for an all-too brief moment. In Galliefreyan she whispered, _“No matter what, remember that. I love you.”_

“Shaun!” Donna’s shout shattered their moment. He looked up to see Donna racing toward her lover.

“I guess she doesn’t have to worry about telling him now,” the Doctor muttered.

Rose managed a quick laugh. “No, guess not. All her worry, all her planning. End of the world does that, though.”

“Brings people together?” He shot her a grin and tugged her into the house.

Despite the tranquil setting, the normal street and normal activities and normality all around, he knew what lurked deeper. And the words Donna spoke _Bad Wolf_ beat through him. Terrified him. He heard Rose, knew she firmly believed those words weren’t the end of the world but a message to bring them where they needed to be.

The pounding in his head told him otherwise.

The Time Ripples might have ended—if meeting Professor Song at the Library was the end to them—but he still felt them. Maybe not the Ripples themselves, not the nauseating alternate visions of _maybe_.

But…something. Hovering there in the corners, over his shoulder. Waiting. Waiting to take everything he loved from him.

“Francine.” Rose hugged the woman. Francine held tight for a long moment. 

He set Aušra Susan on the floor and she immediately crawled to her grandma. Francine scooped her up and kissed the top of her head, held her tight. The Doctor looked around the crowded room and once more thought Francine stole Time Lord technology to make it bigger on the inside.

The place was packed. Not as many people as for Rose’s baby shower, no—his companions continued to fight the good fight in their own ways.

The Doctor had never been prouder or more. He hadn’t caused them to fight. They worked for a better future. His gaze found Aušra Susan, drifted to Jenny. They worked to make the Earth, the universe a better place.

Jenny hugged her grandma and picked up little Keisha. No, they weren’t all there, but many of them were. He knew Doris was with Alistair and coordinating with Harriet Jones—with Tish. Sarah Jane worked with K9 and Mr. Smith, all of UNIT remained on high alert, and Rose’s call to Francine ensured the word spread to the rest of his companions to be ready.

For whatever happened.

In all his years he never expected that—former and current companions working with each other. The Doctor wasn’t sure why he worked so hard to keep them separated. It no longer mattered, not with Rose in his life making sure everyone knew each other.

It honestly never occurred to him to have them work _together_. They knew what happened out there, the aliens—the good and the bad, the beautiful and the ugly. But no, he dropped them home or they left and that was that.

Until Rose changed everything. 

Faced with a crowded living room (the height of domesticity) and people he didn’t necessarily travel with but their _families_ (the domestic choked him) the Doctor heard Donna’s words echo back to him. _He’s got the biggest family in the universe._

And the Face of Boe’s ominous warning, but in hindsight not so ominous. _You are not alone._

Huh. Maybe they were right.

“Everyone here?” Rose asked, pulling back.

“We’re not leaving.” Francine crossed her arms and glared at him.

The Doctor blinked. “What?”

“We are not leaving,” Francine repeated in that firm, condescending voice she reserved just for him. “You can take Luke and his friends, Keisha, Shonara—keep them safe on the TARDIS.”

“I told you,” Shonara interrupted. “I’m not going.”

“Shon,” Leo pleaded, “please. You’re pregnant.”

“You are?” the Doctor asked, surprised. He grinned widely. “Congratulations!”

Shonara spared him a glance and nod, a brief but genuine smile. Then crossed her arms over her chest and planted her feet. Oh, he knew that look all too well and felt a moment’s pity for Leo.

“I am not running. We know whatever is coming is bad, but the rest of this neighborhood doesn’t. They think it’s another normal Wednesday. If we can’t save the world or the universe, we save our corner of it.”

“That’s all anyone can do.” The Doctor heard himself speak before he realized he intended to.

“It’s not safe on the streets,” Jenny said and kissed Keisha’s cheek. “Whatever you do, stay off the streets.” She shuddered and hugged Keisha closer then set her back on the floor.

“Do you want us to take Keisha?” Jack asked as the little girl hugged her favorite uncle.

The Doctor learned early on that Jack was everyone’s favorite uncle. He tried not to take it personally.

“Are you taking Aušra Susan with you?” Shonara shot back.

The Doctor flinched and Rose looked sick for a moment. He met her gaze and though clawing panic tore him up, he slowly nodded.

He swallowed hard and tried to put into words the exact opposite needs: Keeping his family safe and coddled and shiningly perfect—and making sure they understood the dangers of the universe so they had the means to stop the bad guys.

“We made a promise to do everything together.” He swallowed hard and looked from Shonara to Leo to Francine. “Do I want to leave her where it’s safe? Oh yes. Yes, I do. If—”

“We do things as a family,” Rose said, voice thick. She looked from him to Shonara and back again. “Everything.”

Shonara nodded, more a nod of smug acceptance than agreement, the Doctor thought.

“Keisha stays with us.” Her voice shook but she looked resolute.

“All right,” he agreed.

Swallowed hard and seriously wanted to leave his family here. Rose’d kill him that much was true. Jenny’d back her up. He’d still do it, despite not knowing if here was any safer. Except…

Except he promised. 

“It’s your choice. We have to figure out what’s going on and stop it.” He looked around the room. “So if you’re coming, now’s the time.”

There was a short scuffle between Luke and his friends—they wanted to stay and help but Rose promised Sarah Jane and there wasn’t a soul in this universe who said no to Rose. He knew all about that.

“I promised your mum I’d keep you safe,” Rose said and ordered them into the TARDIS.

“We’ll look after them,” Shonara promised.

Rose nodded reluctantly but agreed.

“Where’s Martha?” Francine asked. Her voice cracked but she did not. She gathered herself up and looked at him with such determination, he knew where Martha got hers.

“She’s with UNIT in New York,” Jack admitted. “She’s working to save Earth from there.”

The Doctor saw it then, the thousand pleas Francine wanted to utter—keep her safe, don’t let anything happen to her, protect my baby. But Francine only hugged Jack, pulled him close and whispered to him words even the Doctor couldn’t hear.

Jack nodded and pulled back. “I promise, Francine.”

“Bring my family home to me, Doctor,” she ordered. “All of them.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

In the end Luke and friends stayed with Francine and promised to obey all her rules; Francine stared-down Sylvia until the other woman, uncharacteristically silent, capitulated; Shaun refused to leave Donna, and they left.

The Doctor, once more holding Aušra Susan, opened the TARDIS and ushered everyone in.

“Wow,” Shaun said in suitable awe. Eyes wide, jaw slack. “Oh, wow.”

Normally the Doctor loved this part. Today? Not so much. If they survived the coming storm, he promised himself he and Shaun could have a redo.

“It’s bigger on the inside,” Donna and Jenny said simultaneously.

“It’s magic,” Shaun muttered.

“I’ll show you around later,” Donna promised.

“What just happened?” the Doctor asked as he handed Aušra Susan to Rose. His wife looked tired, and he brushed his fingers over her forehead, her cheek. Opened himself wide to her and gave her whatever strength he had.

But Rose had always been _his_ strength.

“Our family took a stand,” she said softly, the words tinged with awe. Rose settled Aušra Susan on the jumpseat and strapped her in, kissing their baby’s head. Brushed her fingers against his.

“Now then,” the Doctor began.

The TARDIS shuddered. She moved and shook and he grabbed onto the console and held tight.

“Rose!” He desperately hit the stabilizer, the handbrake, whatever lay in reach and looked frantically to Rose, but she curled over Aušra Susan, gripping the seat tightly. Jenny held both of them tight. Jack stumbled toward Rose as did Shaun who didn’t even know her.

Before the Doctor fully realized Shaun, whom he hadn’t met until today, was trying to help his wife and child the shaking-shuddering stopped.

“What the hell was that?” Donna demanded.

“Don’t know.” He straightened, crossed to Rose and kissed her quickly. “All right?”

“Yeah. Fine.” She breathed out steadily and smiled up at him. “What happened?”

“I don’t know,” he admitted, “But it came from outside.”

Rose was right beside him as he threw open the doors.

“What?” He stared out the TARDIS doors.

Rose gasped, clutched his arm. “Where’s Earth?”

 _“What?”_ the Doctor managed.

“We’re in space?” Shaun yelped.

Earth was not where they left it, but the sun continued to blaze brightly before them. In the distance, the Doctor saw Earth’s moon, tranquilly orbiting…nothing. How was that even possible?

It wasn’t, and the moon’s orbit would deteriorate until it crashed. The more important question was—where on Earth was the Earth?

“Dad!” Jenny called from the scanners. 

He raced from the doors, leaving them for Rose to close in Shaun’s disbelieving face, to Jenny.

“We haven’t moved.” Jenny pointed to the screen. “We’re fixed. Theoretically speaking, we should be exactly outside Grandma Francine’s house. The TARDIS is still in the same place, but the Earth is…gone.”

 ** _“What?”_** He looked over her shoulder at the readouts. “What do you mean, gone?”

That sick feeling in his gut intensified. He tweaked the scanners, looked again, but of course Jenny was right. 

“The entire planet,” he repeated. “It’s gone. There’s no readings. Nothing. Not a trace. Not even a whisper. Oh, that is fearsome technology.”

“I can’t get through to Harriet or Francine,” Rose said from beside him. Lines bracketed her mouth, brandy eyes wide against her pale face. “It’s like I don’t have a signal.”

“How can you not have a signal?” Donna demanded. “What about Mum and Gramps?”

“Mine’s not working either,” Jack said from his other side. He sounded frightened and angry but fiercely controlled. “I can’t get ahold of Martha.”

The Doctor looked at Rose and reached for her. “Hold on.”

“I have a bad feeling about this, Doctor.”

He nodded, wrapped her waist and breathed her in. “I love you. Forever, Rose. I’ll always love you. We’ll find a way out of this. I promise.”

 ********  
“Aunt Donna, when you were in the pocket universe, did Mum say anything else?”

Rose looked at Jenny, her fingers frantically flying over the controls. She flicked scanner buttons without looking at them and pounded at the keyboard, gaze focused on the monitor.

“I don’t know!” Donna admitted.

“You’re her mum?” Shaun asked, and blinked at Rose. “Blimey, Donna, who are your friends?”

Rose glanced at them, lips twitching at Shaun. Maybe today wasn’t the best time for him to discover what Donna had been up to—was end of the world ever the best time? But Donna looked scared, clung to Shaun, though she sounded as sharp as usual.

Rose swallowed hard and pushed her own fear away. They were all scared, but fear never solved anything.

Mum taught her that.

“Donna, it’s all right.” Rose turned to move across the grating, but the Doctor’s firm hold stopped her.

She threaded her fingers with his and held tight. From her secured position on the jumpseat, Aušra whimpered but her contrary baby otherwise did not cry and held her stuffed wolf like the security blanket it was.

Sobbed uncontrollably in the Library; didn’t do more than sniffle here with the end of the universe hovering on the horizon.

“Did other me say anything? Other than Bad Wolf—” Rose shivered but didn’t stop. “Did other me mention anything? Anything at all?”

Slowly Donna shook her head. Her face relaxed marginally and she met Rose’s gaze. “The stars were going out,” she whispered. “They were going out and you needed the Doctor.”

The enormity of her failures choked her and she thought she might be sick. She knew that, _knew_ the stars were going out; it was her job to find the Doctor and _fix_ that. Save the multiverse. That was why she originally jumped, why she searched for the Doctor.

She failed.

“This is my fault,” she whispered. “I _knew_ they were going out, but didn’t…I didn’t act.” She sucked in a deep breath. “That’s why the gaps between universes opened. That’s the whole _reason_ I was able to jump through. I _knew_ it and what did I do?”

She tore her unseeing gaze from Donna to the Doctor. “I could’ve stopped this. This is my fault.”

“No. Rose, _no_.” His grip tightened around her arms, her marriage tattoos. Even through her shirt and jacket the touch electrified her, a combination of their bond, of his touch, of her nauseating fear. “This is not your fault!”

“River said—she said.” Rose stopped and tried to breathe. “River said there were twenty-seven planets; she said she knew Donna because of that, the stars going out and the disappearing planets.”

“Twenty-seven?” Jenny muttered.

Rose glanced at her daughter, but Jenny continued to work the TARDIS scanners and didn’t look up. Aušra reached for her, suddenly fussy. Rose unhooked her and lifted her into her arms. Nuzzling her nose in the warmth softness of her neck, she breathed in Aušra’s baby scent even as the child patted her cheek and climbed up her chest to wrap her chubby arms around Rose.

It eased the tightness around her heart, but didn’t alleviate the guilt. The sickening guilt that she might’ve stopped all this.

“I found you and when you found no sign of the disappearing stars, we let the TARDIS scan.”

“Rosie.” Jack appeared beside her. Rose glanced up at him, felt the warmth of his hand on her shoulder, the comfort of his presence. “This isn’t your fault. We searched, remember? We searched and never found any evidence of stars disappearing here. Without evidence, there was nothing we could do.”

A sob caught in her throat and she nodded. “I know.” She blinked away the tears, her fear, her guilt and nodded more firmly. “I know, Jack, but I was so busy with—” she waved her hand around the TARDIS—“And I should’ve focused on the stars.”

“Rose.” In one smooth move, the Doctor took Aušra and handed her to Jack then pulled her to him. “Rose, no. Listen to me. This isn’t your fault. If anyone’s it’s mine. I should’ve looked harder, but…”

 _“But you found me again,”_ he told her, fingers brushing her temples. _“And I didn’t want to lose you. I couldn’t, not again. Not and survive.”_

“The TARDIS tracked the missing planets,” Jenny interrupted.

Rose looked up at her daughter; Jenny frowned at the monitor. “What do you mean? Planets? How could She know about them? How could She—” Rose cut herself off. Swallowed. Took a deep breath and very gently eased her grip on the Doctor.

“This isn’t your fault, Rosie,” Jack repeated and kissed her cheek.

She nodded, not entirely certain she agreed with him or not.

“What missing planets, Jenny?” Jack asked, still holding Aušra and still intimidating despite the baby in his arms.

Jenny tilted her head and frowned. “Some of these sound familiar.” She looked up at them, eyes flicking between Rose and the Doctor. “Didn’t you get married on Jahoo?”

“What?” The Doctor crossed to Jenny.

“Pink sand, lovely atmosphere.” Jack nodded. “Uninhabited. All in all, a very nice locale for a wedding.”

The Doctor slipped his specks on, but Rose was far too distracted to appreciate the way he looked, glasses on, hair wild, squinting down at the screen. She bit her lip and vowed to take full advantage of that look—later.

After they saved the universe.

“Jahoo, yes.” The Doctor looked up and met her gaze. “We were married there.”

“What other planets?” She asked, mouth dry. Rose took a step on unsteady legs and looked at the screen herself. “Shallacatop.”

“We spent a lovely week or so on the beach there,” the Doctor agreed to her silent question. “After Broad Oak Manor. Same with Pentha Prime—went ice skating.”

After running from creatures who wanted to devour his and Jack’s life essence and landing at the horse farm Broad Oak Manor; after Torchwood searching for Jack and hiding from those hunters from Silous; after Amélie Fitzpatrick’s failed attempt to bring the IRA onto British soil.

“Woman Wept, Cheem,” she read, ice settling in her belly. “Clom?”

“Who’d want to steal Clom?” the Doctor asked, stunned.

“Laracopa.” Rose swallowed hard. “These are all places we’ve been, Doctor.”

They first made love on Laracopa; Jack purposefully disappeared and she and the Doctor made love in the fields of flowers. Course they argued later, after his ridiculous attempts to tell her it meant nothing and she needed to forget it ever happened.

“I’ve never heard of Callufrax Minor,” Jack said from beside her. He tapped the screen, movements stiff and exact, not at all like the man she knew but like the agent he was.

“Callufrax was a Key to Time,” the Doctor said. He ran a hand through his already wild hair and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Space pirates devoured it, wanted the resources.”

“Melissa Majoria,” Rose read. “That planet with the sentient bees?”

“These are all places you’ve been?” Jenny tapped a few more keys. “There are only twenty-four, including Earth.”

“Most of them,” the Doctor agreed. “But why?”

“River said twenty-seven.” Rose cleared her throat. “She said there were twenty-seven planets, which three are we missing?”

“What about Pyrovillia?” Donna asked from by a coral strut where she and Shaun stood, his arm wrapped around her shoulders. She frowned and looked into the distance as if trying to remember something.

Rose shuddered. “Pompeii.” She tilted her head. “Why that one, though? It disappeared over two-thousand years ago.”

“Poosh!” Jack added. “The Lost Moon of Poosh! Remember, DeeDee on Midnight? Her specialty was the Lost Moon of Poosh.”

The Doctor blanched at the memory, but nodded and waited as Jenny tapped a couple keys.

“What about the Adipose breeding planet?” Rose asked slowly. “Didn’t that woman say the royal family’s breeding planet was lost?”

“That’s why they were on Earth, right?” Donna asked.

“Who was on Earth?” Shaun asked but once more Donna hushed him.

“Adipose Three.” The Doctor caught her gaze, his own eyes dark and troubled. But his face was set and he looked back at the screen as Jenny added in that planet.

The TARDIS beeped and Jenny hit a couple more keys. Suddenly the image projected onto the air in front of the door. The planets rearranged themselves automatically.

“Jenny? What did you do?” Rose asked.

“Nothing,” Jenny said. She held her hands up from the keyboard as if to drive that fact home. “The image did it itself.”

“Oh, but that’s gorgeous!” The Doctor walked around the console to squint at the image. “Come on, twenty-seven planets in perfect balance? Look at it! It’s beautiful!”

“Oi, don’t get all spaceman!” Donna snapped. Rose heard the fear and frustration in her voice. “What does it mean?”

Jenny joined him and stared at the image as well. She circled her finger to encompass it all. “Someone wants to build a conductor. That many planets, that much power, they’re cogs in a machine. But for what? Who has the technology to do this, and why would they want to?”

“Someone tried to move the Earth once before. Long time ago,” the Doctor whispered. “Can’t be.”

He turned back to face her and Rose knew. Suddenly, without him voicing it or even projecting it over their bond, she knew. Rose heard it in the quiet dread of his voice and the shiver of foreboding when he looked at her.

“They always survive.”

Jack shuddered beside her. Moved closer. Aušra reached for her and Rose took her daughter, absently soothing her. Rose remembered that first time; the three of them: she, the Doctor, Jack. With Bad Wolf and bringing Jack back to life.

“Daleks,” Jack spat.

“What are Daleks?” Donna asked.

“Can you track them?” Rose asked and held Aušra tighter.

Suddenly her mobile rang. Fumbling, she hurried to answer hoping it was Martha or Alistair or Sarah Jane, any one of her family really.

“Hello?”

“Rose? Rose can you hear me?”

Her head jerked up, eyes locking on the Doctor’s. _“Mickey?”_

He crossed the room in two long strides and put her mobile on speaker.

“Rose, if you can hear me,” Mickey said, “we’re jumping through.”

“Mickey!” she called but there was no answer.

“I don’t think the call is live,” the Doctor whispered. “We’re not getting any signal from Earth.”

“But how did they even get a signal through?” Rose asked through numb lips. “I’ve been here years and not once have we been able to contact them. Not on any frequency.”

The Doctor looked at the still-floating planets for a moment then suddenly focused sharp eyes on her.

“Rose you’re a genius!” He kissed her hard, grinning like a madman. “Jenny, recalibrate the TARDIS controls. The parallel universe is not in our same time; they run ahead.”

“Oh!” Jenny nodded and started flicking even more switches.

“Allons-y!” The Doctor said and pulled the lever down.


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We Are Not Alone. The choices we make are our own and bring people into our lives. Some become friends. Some lovers. Some enemies. But all are there for a reason.

Rose straightened and steadied herself on the console. Nothing about this was normal. She looked at Aušra in her TARDIS-seat, but she looked perfectly tranquil. Behind her, Shaun looked a little peaked but, all things considered, perfectly fine. Donna also seemed fine. Or as fine as any of them were.

Jack grasped her arm. “Rose? You okay?”

“Yeah,” she said through a dry throat. She turned to take Aušra from her seat and secure her in the sling when the TARDIS’s phone rang. Rose stopped, kissed Aušra instead.

Mum? Mickey? Pete? Heart pounding, she slowly turned and waited.

The Doctor frowned at it. “Right NTC we have here.” He lifted the receiver. “Hello?”

“Doctor!” Harriet Jones’s voice echoed through the TARDIS.

The Doctor looked at the phone then at the screen Jenny had been using. He tapped a few keys and smiled at it.

“Harriet Jones!” Then he frowned. “How’d you get through? We can’t get a signal to anyone on Earth.”

“We’re using the Subwave Network Mr. Cooper and I developed,” Harriet said. “Tish helped specially calibrated to your TARDIS.”

“Oh,” the Doctor said, nodding, pleased. “Good idea!”

Rose and Jack crowded near the Doctor and Jenny, and despite the situation, the desperation, the guilt, she felt a little better. With her family there, they’d do it—they’d win.

“Got it, Dad,” Jenny said.

“We’re in your time now, Harriet,” the Doctor said.

“I’m following Harriet Jones’s signal to Earth,” Jenny added and continued to type on the keyboard, squinting at the lower left corner of the monitor where Harriet continued to look calm and determined.

The Doctor shifted slightly to allow Jenny more room to work and reached for Rose’s hand. “Are you sure the Daleks can’t detect you?”

Harriet paused and Rose’s stomach dropped. “Harriet,” she began.

In the background she saw Tish look away for a moment. Then she looked back, determined and fierce. So much like Martha and Francine, Rose’s heart clenched.

“Does it matter?” Harriet interrupted. “What matters is that we work on defeating the Daleks.”

“Are they in the streets already?” the Doctor asked and the cold calmness enveloping him would’ve scared Rose had she not seen him exactly like this far too many times.

“Doctor, we can’t hold them off for long,” Harriet said instead of answering directly. “We shall do our best to defend Earth, but I trust you won’t let us down.”

Slowly he nodded.

“We won’t, Harriet,” Rose promised. “We’ll stand together.”

“Sign off, Harriet. Don’t let the Daleks detect you.” He swallowed and closed his eyes for a second. “They’re smarter than they look.”

“We stand together.” Harriet nodded and signed off.

“This is it then,” the Doctor said to the screen then looked at her.

“Daleks.” She forced a smile. “End of the world.”

Jack shifted and shook his head, his own humor forced. “Ohh, scary.”

Rose reached for Jenny’s hand in what little comfort she had to offer. Jenny’s resolve strengthened her.

“Where did the signal lead?” the Doctor asked, voice hoarse.

“The Medusa Cascade,” Jenny said.

The Doctor didn’t physically flinch, but his shock was so obvious Rose frowned.

Jenny looked up as well, obviously having felt it. “Dad? Does that mean something to you?”

“Doctor?” Rose asked, held his hand tighter though she couldn’t feel her fingers. “What is it?”

“I haven’t been here in centuries.” He only shook his head, swallowed hard. “A millennia—more.”

“But I’ve heard of the Medusa Cascade.” Donna stepped closer to the console, Shaun right next to her. She frowned and stared at the grating. “I’m sure I have.”

“There’s a rift there,” Jack said, voice rough. “When I was a Time Agent we were always told to steer clear of it, messed with our Vortex Manipulators. It’s beautiful though; I always wanted to visit the broken moons.”

“Yeah.” The Doctor sucked in a breath. “Yeah.” He cleared he throat and turned to her. Blinked. “Rose.”

“What is it?” she whispered.

He was terrified and she didn’t understand why. Daleks, yes. But Daleks aside…a stray thought bled over their bond. She scrambled to grasp it but only felt the screaming-burning death of the Time War.

Bloodied hands. Bloodied landscape. Screams and terror and beings disappearing before his very eyes. Others popping up in their place. The entire fabric of reality literally unraveling around him.

“Doctor,” she breathed and moved closer to him, if that was even possible.

How many nights had she held him? Two bodies, the same nightmares. Burning and death and beings no longer existing even though he still remembered them.

The TARDIS phone beeped again, shattering the moment.

“There’s someone else trying to contact us.” The Doctor said, surprised. He sniffed and shook his head, already working the controls. He looked to Rose as he tapped the keyboard. “Hello? Can you hear me? Mickey? Pete? Jackie?” 

“Your voice is different.” A disembodied voice that was most definitely _not_ from her family came over the TARDIS speakers. “And yet its arrogance is unchanged.”

The Doctor stilled, face white. Rose didn’t realize her hands trembled until she placed one on the Doctor’s arm. He jerked, as if shocked, and looked at her.

Suddenly she knew. Knew who that voice belonged to even if she knew of him only through the Doctor’s stories of the Time War. Of Sarah Jane’s memories of traveling with the Doctor.

“Welcome to my new empire, Doctor,” the gravelly, broken, sinister voice continued. “It is only fitting that you should bear witness to the resurrection and the triumph of Davros, lord and creator of the Dalek race.”

Rose shuddered. Aušra quieted and Jenny quickly unstrapped her sister and moved closer. Donna and Shaun also circled the Doctor. A protective bubble of family.

“Doctor?” Donna whispered and reached for him.

She dropped her hand and looked helplessly at Rose. Rose shook her head, opened her mouth but closed it again at a complete loss. On the monitor the image of a being, vaguely humanoid, stared back with sunken blinded eyes that seemed to still look straight through them.

“Have you nothing to say?” Davros asked in that horrible slimy, superior tone.

“Doctor?” Donna said again.

“Dad?” Jenny whispered. “Dad what’s wrong?”

 _“I’ve got you,”_ Rose sent to him, ignoring her own terror and the piercing headache that went with telepathy. _“I’ll never let you go.”_

The Doctor looked at her, eyes sharp. He nodded, a bare movement of his head, then looked back at Davros.

“You were destroyed,” the Doctor said, voice no more than a stunned whisper. “In the very first year of the Time War, at the Gates of Elysium.”

His hand tightened around hers and Rose wondered what the Gates of Elysium were. He never mentioned them, not specifically, but then she knew so little of what actually happened during the War. The Doctor confided in her, but hundreds of years of war…

“I saw your command ship fly into the jaws of the Nightmare Child.” He swallowed and Rose shuddered. She knew what the Nightmare Child was and honestly wished she didn’t. “I tried to save you,” he admitted.

Of course he had. Rose squeezed his hand. Of course he tried to save Davros no matter what the creature on the screen had done. No matter that he created the Daleks. He was her Doctor.

Davros smirked, if so twisted an action could be called that. “But it took one stronger than you.” He laughed and it made Rose want to vomit. “Dalek Caan himself.”

Rose shuddered, the Doctor stiffened; beside her, Jack cursed. Caan. She knew that name. The Cult of Skaro. Torchwood Tower. The tunnels below Manhattan and Martha’s terrible fear for the Doctor. The last Dalek. The last one…until now. How? How was that possible? How had he survived?

_They always survive…_

Jack’s hand rested on her shoulder. Jenny moved even closer. Rose wanted to comfort her children, but didn’t know how. This was even worse than she imagined.

“I flew into the wild and fire,” Caan crowed, voice high-pitched and even madder than Davros’s. “I danced and died a thousand times.”

“He’s mad,” Donna whispered, a wisp of sound. 

“Emergency Temporal Shift took him back into the Time War itself,” Davros said.

“But that’s impossible.” The Doctor’s hand tightened on hers.

The shields he normally kept between her and his memories of the War faltered again, and Rose felt as if she was in the midst of battle. Fire and death and rage and bodies.

“The entire War is time-locked.”

“And yet he succeeded.” Davros laughed again, that same sickening sound. “Oh, it cost him his mind, but imagine. A single, simple Dalek succeeded where Emperors and Time Lords have failed. A testament, don’t you think, to my remarkable creations?”

“The emperor,” Rose whispered, throat closing. She swallowed and continued in a stronger voice. “Was tiny. I saw the whole of time and space. Every single atom of his existence, and I divided them.”

“Rose!” The Doctor’s voice pierced her memory and she blinked. He looked frightened. Frightened and furiously angry.

“And who is that abomination?” Davros asked.

_(“This is the Abomination!” The Emperor shrieked even as another Dalek screeched, “Exterminate!”_

_“I am the Bad Wolf,” Rose heard herself say. “I create myself. I take the words, I scatter them in time and space. A message to lead myself here.”_

_The abomination. Not an abomination. The. As if she was the only one…)_

“Who dares speak to me?” Davros demanded, snapping her from the memory-dream.

“So you made a new race of Daleks,” the Doctor spat. “From your own DNA?”

Davros waited for a long moment but no one in the TARDIS answered his question and Dalek Caan was suspiciously silent. Rose wondered why. In the next heartbeat decided no—she did not want to know why.

“I gave myself to them,” he eventually said, “quite literally. Each one grown from a cell of my own body.” Davros opened his tunic. Instead of a solid body only ribs and disgustingly dangling nerves showed around still working organs.

Donna made a choked, disgusted sound and Shaun muttered beneath his breath, but Rose barely heard them.

“True Daleks,” Davros continued. “I have my children, Doctor. What do you have, now?”

“Me.” Rose said that single word so clearly, so proudly it took even her by surprised. “Us.”

Jack’s hand tightened on her shoulder and he added, “All of us. I still believe in you, Doc.”

The Doctor didn’t acknowledge them, though Rose knew he heard. “After all this time,” he whispered, still stunned, “everything we saw, everything we lost, I have only one thing to say to you.”

He moved, throwing levers and straightening to his full height. “Bye!”

But it was too late. Even with the broken connection to the Dalek ship, Rose swore she heard Dalek Caan cackling.

The TARDIS stilled for a fraction of a second then shook horribly.

“Chronon loop!” the Doctor shouted and raced around the console. “The Daleks caught us in a chronon loop!”

“A time loop?” Rose shouted back as she staggered to Jenny who hunched with Aušra against the coral strut behind the jumpseat.

“They’re time particles,” the Doctor said, still racing around the console.

Whatever it was, it was as bad as it sounded. The TARDIS shuddered and tipped, and Rose barely held herself upright.

Jack made his way to Jenny and took Aušra; Jenny raced to help the Doctor steady the TARDIS and extricate them from the loop. Jack’s eyes met hers over Aušra’s head and Rose’s heart nearly burst with love and affection. And if this was it, if this was the end, she swore they’d go out together.

Just as suddenly as it started, the shaking stopped. In the echoing silence of the aftermath, Rose took Aušra from Jack. Surprised at her own calmness, she picked the sling up from the grating and wrapped it around her body, nestling Aušra close.

Her hands trembled and her heart pounded. It hurt to breathe. Rose ignored all of that and swallowed around the lump of fear and regret. Their time together had been fantastic. Focusing everything in her, she looked to the Doctor.

_“I don’t regret one minute of it since you took my hand and told me to run.”_

The Doctor slammed his hands on the TARDIS controls and watched her. Eyes dark and haunted, mind chaotic, he reached for her. _“Please, Rose.”_

Rose knew what he wanted and purposely ignored him. Rose looked to Jenny, who looked slightly orange and ill, and hugged her tight.

“Stay here,” Rose said. And tried not to beg. “Watch your sister.”

Stay here and if something happens to us at least you’ll both survive...

“I can’t, Mum.” Jenny hugged her tight. “That’s not how it works.”

“Jenny.” Rose swallowed and licked her lips, but only nodded.

She hated when the Doctor did that—made her choice, her decisions. She’d be damned if she did it for anyone else. Even her children.

This was what she wanted to teach her children. Never run from doing what was right. Now, faced with Daleks and missing planets and the very end of the universe—universes—Rose wanted to hide them all away.

Oh, the irony—it was exactly what the Doctor wanted to do with her. And hadn’t she railed at him for it?

Instead she nodded. “I love you, Jenny.”

Jenny smiled and stood straighter. “I love you, too, Mum.”

Jack kissed the back of Aušra’s head then looked to Rose. She had such a flashback to that first time, to the Game Station and their goodbyes there. Jack’s lips turned up slightly and he cupped her face and pressed his lips to hers. Pulling back he nodded. He hugged Jenny for a long moment then turned to the Doctor and kissed him as well.

Whether he purposely recreated that moment Rose didn’t know. But she knew what he meant by it. And loved him all the more.

“What’ll happen to you?” Rose heard herself asking.

“I don’t know.” Jack stopped and cleared his throat. “But I swear to you I’ll take the Daleks out with me.”

“Jack.” Her voice broke but Rose swallowed hard and nodded. She hugged him again. “Love you.” 

The Doctor sniffed and looked up to the high ceiling of the TARDIS, Rose watched a thousand emotions race across his face before he turned to them, his mask of laughing-in-the-face-of-danger firmly in place.

She wanted to promise him everything would work out, but the words died on her tongue. Instead she concentrated and pushed her love for him across their bond. _“I love you.”_

Face bleak, eyes laced with dread and fear and hatred, he nodded. But his lips quirked, just the slightest. And he mouthed back, _I love you, too_.

“Jack can you jump out?” the Doctor asked, gaze still on her.

“No.” Jack tapped his Vortex Manipulator a few times, hissing in frustration. “The time-space energies from the Cascade must be interfering. I don’t have this problem in Cardiff,” he admitted and straightened. “But Cardiff isn’t as big as the Medusa Cascade.”

The Doctor nodded and to the doors then back to her. “You could stay here,” he whispered. “Safe in the TARDIS with our children.”

“I could,” she agreed. “But I’m not going to and neither are our children. I’m not sure there’s anywhere safe with the Daleks outside.” She stopped and swallowed hard.

Rose wrapped her trembling hand around Aušra but knew the Doctor saw her fear. Not like it was any use hiding it anyway.

“You once told me nothing could get through those doors,” she said.

“Plus we have extrapolator shielding,” Jack said but it was in the same monotone voice as hers. An offer, an idea, but no real hope of it working out.

“Last time we fought the Daleks, they were scavengers and human-hybrids.” He shook his head. “And mad.” He looked around the TARDIS as if he never expected to see Her again. To see any of them again.

“But this is a fully-fledged Dalek Empire, at the height of its power. There was a reason the Time Lords fought the War for hundreds of years,” he whispered. “These Daleks, they’re experts at fighting TARDISes. It was such a bloody war—so much death.” He sucked in a deep breath, ran a hand down his face. “They can do anything. Right now, that wooden door is just wood.”

Rose only squeezed his hand. She knew. They all did. But sometimes hope was all they had to grasp onto.

_Surrender, Doctor, and face your Dalek masters._

“I love you, Rose.” He pressed his lips hard to hers, held her a moment too long. A little too hard.

She nodded. “I love you so much,” she whispered against his mouth. Rose held him as close as possible, Aušra between them. “It was worth it. You hear me?” She pulled back. “It was worth it. Every single minute.”

The Doctor nodded, forehead pressed to hers. “Every minute with you is worth it, my hearts.”

Rose kissed him again. She didn’t care the Daleks waited. Or her friends looked on. She needed this final touch. Stepping from him, she turned and hugged Jenny. She couldn’t speak past the lump in her throat but words weren’t needed. They took that time. Much needed time to silently say goodbye.

If it was the end…

“Blimey,” the Doctor muttered and ran a hand down his face.

Hand-in-hand, she and the Doctor walked out first, Jack immediately behind them. Donna argued with Shaun that he should stay inside the TARDIS even as she held tightly to his hand.

“Jenny?” Rose called. It sparked in the air—something was wrong. She looked over her shoulder. Jenny stood framed in the doorway, neither exiting nor hiding, Donna and Shaun behind her. “Jenny?”

“Jenny, you’re no safer in there—”

The TARDIS door slammed closed. Rose’s heart froze.

 _“Jenny!”_ Rose screamed and raced back to the TARDIS.

 _“What?”_ The Doctor stilled then ran back to the doors. He tried to open them but they wouldn’t so much as shudder beneath his weight.

 _“Jenny!”_ she screamed again and banged on the solid doors.

Jack stood beside her, fumbling with his key. The key turned in the lock, but the doors still refused to open.

“Dad?” Jenny called from inside. “Mum?”

“What happened? Jenny!” The Doctor shouted. “Open the doors!”

“I can’t.” She sounded so final Rose’s heart stopped.

“Jenny Donna, open this door!” she shouted and slammed her hand against the wood. It felt far more solid than mere wood.

“What did you do?!” The Doctor whirled around and glared at the Daleks. “What did you do? She’s still inside! _What. Did. You. **Do**? _ ”

The red Dalek, who appeared to be in charge seemed almost smug as he looked down on them from his dais. “This is not of Dalek origin.”

“It has to be,” Rose insisted. She looked at the Doctor. “What’s going on?”

He mutely shook his head and tried the doors again. “Jenny!”

The TARDIS shuddered but otherwise didn’t shift under any of their force. Aušra whimpered and called out for her sister, one chubby hand clutching her stuffed wolf the other reaching out to the TARDIS.

Nothing happened. The doors didn’t open, Jenny didn’t appear.

“Stop it!” the Doctor roared. “She’s my—” he cut himself off and Rose was glad for it. She didn’t want any of the Daleks knowing who Jenny was to them. “Open the door and let her out.” He commanded in his formidable, angry Time Lord voice.

“This is Time Lord treachery,” the Red Dalek intoned.

Rose’s stomach dropped. No. _No!_

“Me?” His tone incredulous, Rose still felt the anger in him. He’d tear apart this entire Crucible with his bare hands to save Jenny. “You think I did this? You think I’d leave my—you think I’d leave her in there? The door just closed on its own!”

“Nevertheless,” the Red Dalek droned. “The TARDIS is a weapon and it will be destroyed.”

“No!” Rose cried out, but Jack tugged her away from the TARDIS. “No! Jenny!”

A door opened beneath the TARDIS and before Rose knew it, their beloved ship with her daughter still onboard, dropped through.

“No! Let me go! Jack, let me go!”

But it wasn’t Jack’s hands on her now, it was the Doctor’s.

“What are you doing?” the Doctor demanded, horrified. “Bring it back!”

His entire body stilled and Rose knew this was the Doctor from the Time War. She’d seen him like this when she first traveled with him. During their first encounter with a Dalek, so long ago.

“What have you done?” he ground out. “Where’s that door lead?”

Rose sucked in a deep breath. She still felt Jenny, her daughter’s strong, calm presence in her mind. The purple-blue pulse of life. Aušra buried herself in Rose’s chest, and Rose absently stroked her hair.

Empty comfort.

“This isn’t the end,” she promised both her daughters. “This is _not_ the end.”

“The Crucible has a heart of Z-neutrino energy,” the Red Dalek said. “The TARDIS will be deposited into the core.”

Horror darkened the Doctor’s face and Rose reached for his hand. She had a pretty good idea what that was even if she never specifically heard of Z-neutrino energy. Neutrino energy caused a fission reaction…if the Daleks used it against the TARDIS now…

Rose swallowed and realized Z-neutrino energy was how they defeated TARDISes during the War.

“You can’t,” the Doctor whispered. “You’ve taken the defenses down. They’ll be torn apart!” He whirled back around to the gaping hole in the floor. _“Jenny!”_

“You’re going to kill her!” Rose shouted at the Daleks.

She didn’t care her anger didn’t so much as dent their dalekanium. Fury made her hot and she stepped forward. She still felt Jenny, as clearly as ever. Her daughter sent back a wave of love and a promise to set everything right.

“Doctor?” She looked to her husband but only felt the static bombardment of his emotions.

Rose squeezed his hand and tried to calm him. An angry Doctor did no one any good.

“The female and the TARDIS will perish together,” the Red Dalek told them. Rose swore it sounded smug and wanted to be sick. “Observe. The last child of Gallifrey is powerless.”

Last child…did they not realize Jenny and Aušra were the Doctor’s? Or did they mean the TARDIS? Or did they literally mean Gallifrey? As in loomed on?

The screen changed, showed the TARDIS in the molten core of the Z-neutrino engine. Rose’s heart stopped. Then sped up. She wanted to race to Jenny. Wanted to scream and shout at the Daleks and channel the Heart of the TARDIS and destroy them all over again.

“Please,” the Doctor pleaded. “I’m begging you. I’ll do anything!” He released her hand and stepped forward. Rose wanted to call him back, yank him to her, but curled her hands around Aušra.

“Put me in her place,” the Doctor begged. “You can do anything to me, I don’t care, just get her out of there!”

“You are connected to the TARDIS,” the Red Dalek said. “Now feel it die.”

Rose closed the distance between them and grabbed the Doctor’s hand. “She’ll be okay,” she whispered, lips as cold as her heart. “She can fly the TARDIS out of there, yeah?”

The Doctor looked down at her, shattered. Slowly he nodded, a short movement of his head. He pulled her to him, hugged her, but deliberately brushed his fingers over her temples.

_Total TARDIS destruction in ten rels. Nine, eight, seven, six_

_“Play along,”_ he told her telepathically.

_Five, four, three, two, one._

Rose had no idea what that meant but sent back her acceptance. Jenny still pulsed brightly in her head and Rose latched onto that.

“The TARDIS has been destroyed,” that stupid Dalek said. Rose wanted him dead first. “Now tell me, Doctor. What do you feel? Anger? Sorrow? Despair?”

The Doctor pulled back and stood straight. He held her hand once more as he looked at that Dalek. “Yeah.”

“Then if emotions are so important, surely we have enhanced you?”

Rose closed her eyes. One hand on the back of Aušra’s head the other tight in the Doctor’s, she sent everything she was into the words, “Emotions are what make us strong,” she told her Doctor. “I love you.”

The Doctor’s hand squeezed hers, once, but before he could answer the Dalek, Jack stepped forward.

“Yeah?” Jack spat and aimed a gun at the Dalek. Where the hell did he hide that? “Feel this!”

“Exterminate!”

Which of course, Rose realized, was exactly what the Doctor and Jack wanted. She hoped they had a better plan than that. They really were running out of options.


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Daleks made a mistake—more than one. The stole planets; they threatened the Earth; they kidnapped his wife and baby and they thought they killed his eldest. And now their hubris was going to be their undoing: Or Kicking Dalek Arse

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: talk of genocide. Spoiler notes at the end.

The Doctor pulled Rose back from Jack’s body. They both knew he wasn’t dead but this was the show he wanted the Daleks to see. Wanted them to watch every move and think they won. He didn’t know what Jenny planned, she blocked him off except to assure him the TARDIS was fine and they were all alive.

“They’re alive,” the Doctor whispered to Rose. Then telepathically, _“They’re alive.”_

Rose only squeezed his hand, once, in acknowledgement. Full-blown telepathy gave her headaches so he settled for that. Later, if they survived— _when they survived_ —he’d work with her.

They had a lot of life left. They had to survive. Rose promised him a lifetime of love and laughter and family. He intended to hold her to that.

“They are the playthings of Davros now,” the Supreme Dalek said.

And honestly, the Doctor didn’t know if that was good or not. But at least he and Rose were still together. Aušra Susan buried her face in Rose’s chest, but mercifully neither the Daleks nor Davros mentioned her.

Hopefully it’d stay that way.

The Doctor prayed to every deity in the vast universe for that miracle. He didn’t know what he’d do if they tried to take his other daughter from him. His hearts from him. Jenny’s mind continued to burn brightly in his and he latched onto that as he knew Rose did.

“Activate the holding cells,” Davros rasped.

“Doctor,” Rose hissed. But she didn’t move. Held Aušra Susan and raised her chin.

Oh, he loved this woman. She met his gaze and though he felt her terror, she showed none of that. Not to the Daleks, not to Davros. Only he, who knew her so very well, knew how very afraid she was.

The electronic holding cells beamed down to encase them, but he didn’t look away from his wife. Rose met his gaze. The fingers of her left hand brushed the marriage pendant beneath her shirt, her wedding ring a bright light against the dim interior of the Dalek ship. She offered him the barest semblance of a smile. He could almost hear her.

_Together. I regret nothing, you hear me? **Nothing!**_

“Excellent,” Davros mocked. “Even when powerless, a Time Lord is best contained.”

The Doctor tore his gaze from Rose and looked at Davros. “Still scared of me, then?” he shot back.

“It is time we talked, Doctor. After so very long,” Davros said.

“Oh, the nostalgia tour? No, thanks. Not interested.” He waved it away as no more than an annoying gnat. Shoving his hands in his pockets, he rocked back on his heels.

He wanted to reach for Rose, but knew better than to touch a Dalek holding cell. He wanted to look at her, but daren’t do so lest Davros realize how very important she and Aušra Susan were to him.

If they hadn’t already.

They should, it was obvious to anyone with eyes. Well, an eyestalk. Or that weird blue gem eye thing on Davros’s forehead. He never did figure out how that worked. Now probably wasn’t the time to ask.

“What I want to know is what’s happening right here, right now.” He sounded bored but felt as if his skin was too tight. Too hot. He forced himself to still and keep Davros’s gaze.

Jack was out there now. And if he knew the rest of his friends, they weren’t sitting home, hiding in a basement where it might be safer. Oh, no. Not those he traveled with. Jenny was still alive and so was the TARDIS—Donna and Shaun, too.

There was hope. There was always hope.

“The Supreme Dalek over there said Vault, yeah? As in _dungeon, cellar_ —” his lips stretched into a sneer—“ _pris-son_.” He stretched the word out and forced a hollow laugh.

The Doctor grinned into the angry silence. “ _You’re_ not in charge of the Daleks, are you?” he added in a taunting sing-song voice. “They’ve got you locked away down here in the basement like, what, a servant? Slave?”

He laughed, a harsh sound he hadn’t heard from his own lips in lifetimes. “I know! You’re the court jester!”

“We have an arrangement,” Davros said.

But he hedged and the Doctor nearly laughed. Not a pleasant sound. “No, no, no, no, no. No, I’ve got the word,” he said ignoring Davros. “You’re the Dalek’s pet!”

“So very full of fire, is he not?” Davros asked no one. No. Dread coiling sickly in his stomach the Doctor realized who he spoke to. Rose. “And to think you crossed universes to find him again.”

“Leave her alone,” the Doctor spat.

“Of course I did,” Rose shot back, ignoring him. “Looks like you did, too. Couldn’t live without him?” She jeered, shoulders back, chin high, feet planted wide. “Needed to make sure he was here to see you again? Aww, that’s sweet.” 

“She is mine to do with as I please,” Davros sneered, ignoring Rose’s taunts, or seeming to.

“I’m no one’s,” Rose said, that fierceness heating her tone. “I am the Bad Wolf.”

“Oh, the Big, Bad Wolf,” Dalek Caan sang. “The wind and the fire. I danced and died a thousand times.”

“I hope that means you did the foxtrot,” Rose spat, “and not any other meaning of the word _dancing_.”

Incredulous, the Doctor didn’t know if he wanted to laugh or plead with her to stop talking. She sounded like him, provoking the Daleks, Davros. No, she sounded like a fierce warrior, a woman who knew her worth and didn’t allow anyone to trap her.

And she loved him. Protected him. Fought for him and their family. He didn’t deserve her and knew it. But there was no way in this life or the next he’d give her up.

“Careful, little girl,” Davros warned. But he did nothing and the Doctor wondered why. “You are mine to do with as I please; you are no wolf.”

“You are the fire,” Caan cackled. “The fire in which I burnt and the tears your Doctor has shed; he is the storm that comes out of the sky and the love alive.”

Rose curled her hand around Aušra Susan but didn’t look away from Davros. His hearts swelled with love and affection for his beautiful wife. Then Caan’s words came back to him and the Doctor paused; where had he heard them before?

“We’ve met before and again and one final time,” Caan continued.

“What’s he on about?” Rose demanded.

The Doctor knew only he heard the tremor in her voice. _Rose. **Rose.**_ She met his gaze for an instant, eyes flicking to look at him then back to Dalek Caan.

“Dalek Caan can see all,” Davros intoned. “Even the Supreme Dalek would not dare to contradict the prophecies of Dalek Caan.”

“Then why am I still alive?” Rose demanded.

“You must be here,” Davros snapped. “It was foretold.”

“Like a vision fleeting,” Cann said with another nerve scraping cackle. “The wondrous moment of our meeting, the Wolf path and the Storm that comes out of the sky.”

Aušra Susan, as if she sensed what happened around her, huddled deeper into the sling, hiding as much as possible from Davros and the Daleks and cuddling into Rose. Sickened at the danger he put his family in, the Doctor looked away.

What had he done? What had they done? If nothing else he’d keep his family alive. No matter what the Daleks did to him, it didn’t matter. As long as his family lived.

**Together.**

The word beat through him stronger than a mantra, as if Rose, Aušra Susan, and Jenny all conspired to remind him of that. They did everything together.

Even face death.

No—they didn’t face death (weeelll) but they stopped the multiverse from certain destruction. And suddenly the Doctor was forcibly reminded of that moment. His moment with The Moment. Tired and scared and dead inside. When he pressed that button, the deceptively simple red button and ended it all.

Though Rose didn’t send anything through their bond, he felt it. Her fear Dalek Caan somehow orchestrated her appearance in this world. If that mad Dalek was responsible for her finding him on her first jump.

Emergency Temporal Shift—when had Rose arrived? It was that night, the night he and Martha defeated the Daleks in the tunnels beneath Manhattan.

His skin, still so tight across his bones, chilled and his hearts stopped. He heard Rose’s frantic call to him across their bond, but dare not say a word. Not here and now, surrounded by Daleks. Rose’s arrival coincided with Dalek Caan’s temporal shift. That was why she jumped through but they couldn’t ever contact the other universe again.

Until now.

When Caan shifted into the Time War, he opened a hole between universes just long enough for Rose.

“So cold and dark,” Caan said in as much a mournful sigh as a Dalek ever sounded. “It burned through my life, nothing but darkness and a single light.”

The Dalek sounded as if he knew exactly what the Doctor thought and he scrambled to strengthen his mental shields. Just in case. He heard Rose’s sharp intake of breath and Aušra Susan’s whimper, but couldn’t take the chance.

“Fire is coming!” Caan continued. “The endless flames in the Heart of the Cascade, where secrets wait and reveal and dance in the sunlight.”

“You weren’t this crazy last time we met,” Rose muttered. Her love shone through even his shields, the strength of it.

“It flew into the Time War, unprotected,” the Doctor said, gaze once more on Davros. “It managed to get through the time-lock; it had to have seen…everything.”

Even from across the room, he heard-felt Rose’s breath catch. _I can see everything—all that is, all that was, all that ever could be._

“Oh, Caan did more than that,” Davros cackled, sounding eerily like his creations. “He saw time. Its infinite complexity and majesty, raging through his mind. And he saw you. Both of you.”

The Doctor felt Rose’s revulsion as clearly as his own. He wanted to protect her, stop this mad version of a trial or circus.

“Though he did not foresee the child.”

Once more the Doctor’s hearts stopped. Then they galloped in his chest, cold and fast and he didn’t know what to feel. Forgot how to breathe. The rage, that rage he worked so hard to suppress, to keep under tight chains, under lock and key and heavy boulders, broke free.

He growled, all but felt this wind Caan spoke of, this storm nonsense.

Then he felt Rose. The warm mist of her love over the cold fire of his rage, the howl of it echoed around him, called to him. Calmed the storm. 

“Interesting,” Davros murmured.

“This I have foreseen,” Caan said as if Davros hadn’t spoken.

For the first time the Doctor felt the prophetic weight of the insane Dalek’s words. Caan foresaw Jenny and Aušra Susan? Or just one of them? Only Aušra Susan, the child both Caan and Davros now physically saw? Him having children? Rose and his children?

_What?_

He wanted to demand an explanation but the Doctor absolutely did not want either creature discussing his children.

“In the wild and the wind,” Caan continued. “The Bad Wolf leads her warriors as the Storm protects her. The Doctor will bear witness at the end of everything. The Doctor and his precious Children of Time.”

“Was it you, Caan?” he demanded. Voice cold, steady. His gaze flicked to Davros and he saw even that half-alive creature flinch. Caan merely laughed, his bulbous eye blinking. “Did you kill Jenny? Why did the TARDIS door close? Tell me!”

“Oh,” Davros cooed and it was honestly disgusting. “That’s it. The anger, the fire, the rage of a Time Lord who butchered millions. There he is. Why so shy? Show your companion. Show her your true self. Dalek Caan has promised me that, too.”

“I have seen his true self,” Rose said…as did Dalek Caan.

The Doctor’s hearts went cold, at a loss as to what was truly happening, but Rose simply ignored the Dalek. She met his gaze and didn’t flinch.

“I have seen,” Caan continued. “At the time of ending, the Doctor’s soul will be revealed.”

“I know his soul, his _true_ soul,” Rose shot back. “And you do not know it. You do not own it.”

“Rose.” His voice broke but he turned from his beloved to Davros. “What does that mean?”

Davros laughed. “We shall discover it together, my dear Doctor. Our final journey. Because the ending approaches. The testing begins.”

“Testing?” The Doctor repeated. His gaze looked from Davros to Caan before, as always, settling on Rose. “Testing of what?”

“The Reality Bomb.”

 ********  
Jenny looked at the TARDIS screen and thought she might be sick.

She piloted them from the Crucible engine core and into space, hidden in the Medusa Cascade from the Dalek scanners. Not that she thought they’d scan for the TARDIS; no Jenny had a feeling they were positive the ship—and she, Aunt Donna, and Shaun—had been destroyed.

“What is that?” Aunt Donna demanded. “What’s going on? Why are all these energy spikes happening?”

“And why are the planets moving?” Shaun asked and pointed from the screen to the holographic projection the TARDIS once more displayed in front of the doors. “It’s like they’re aligning or something.”

“Oh,” Jenny breathed. “They’ve used the alignment of the 27 planets to flatten Z-neutrino energy.”

“I have no idea what those words mean,” Shaun said, voice shaking. “But I have a feeling it’s bad.”

“Very.” Jenny flicked several switches. “Aunt Donna, monitor the readings. I’m going to stop this.”

 ********  
“What—” Rose stopped. “What just happened?”

She held Aušra closer. The child sobbed now, silent, desolate cries. Rose tried to console her as best she could, uncaring that the Daleks might use her against them. They were already held prisoner on a Dalek ship, surrounded by mad scientists and creatures bred to kill, with Jenny out there somewhere.

 _Please survive_ , Rose begged her daughter. _Please survive._

“That test was focused on the prisoners alone, my dear Miss Tyler. Full transmission will dissolve every form of matter,” Davros was saying.

Rose wanted to be sick. And, perversely, wanted to correct Davros.

She was not _Miss Tyler_. She was…her mind blanked. Not that it made a difference. Not with the end of reality staring her in the face. Still…it seemed important he know she married and bonded with the Doctor.

Did that make her Mrs. Doctor? No, that was silly. Rose cleared her throat and met the Doctor’s gaze. He nodded.

“The stars,” Rose whispered. “The disappearing stars. It’s here.”

“One vast transmitter,” the Doctor said, voice harsh yet oddly faint. “Blasting that wavelength.”

“Across the entire universe,” Davros crowed. “Never stopping, never faltering, never fading. People and planets and stars will become dust, and the dust will become atoms, and the atoms will become nothing.”

“The rift,” Rose managed.

“Yes, the rift. The beautiful rift at the heart of the Medusa Cascade. My bomb will continue on into every dimension, every parallel, every single corner of creation. This is my ultimate victory, Doctor!” Davros laughed. “The destruction of reality itself!”

“Why?” Rose demanded. “Why destroy you and the Daleks as well?”

“Oh, but my dear Miss Tyler,” Davros said in that grating condescending tone. “We are safe here, in the Cascade. And Daleks shall rule supreme!”

“Over what?” Rose asked. “Everything will be destroyed!”

She looked at the Doctor who almost laughed, a sick, stricken sound. “There will only be Daleks,” he agreed. “Daleks across the vast multiverse. Supreme rulers of all.”

Davros cackled. Caan remained eerily silent.

 ********  
Jack had had worse days. At the moment he couldn’t remember one, not even a minute of one, well…there had been his actual death. That sucked. Still…all things considered, that turned out all right.

Mostly.

Today was not a good day. By any stretch of the imagination. He left Rose and the Doctor, Jenny was in the TARDIS with no way for them to reach her, he had two weapons, neither of which were any match against a Dalek, and he hadn’t heard from Martha.

He really needed to hear from Martha.

She needed to be all right, she needed to be. He refused to think otherwise. A thousand images raced through his mind—them traveling with the Doctor and Rose, them making love, them laughing and sharing a quiet night in.

Martha Jones was the best thing to happen to him and he never told her how much she meant to him. How much he needed her. How much he loved her.

And Jack didn’t even care how many years he had on her or how many years he’d live without her. Suddenly, he desperately needed to tell her.

Jack turned left, following the non-Dalek life signs his Vortex Manipulator picked up and crawled out of the duct work, and why did Daleks need duct work? But he was alive and angry and determined. As if in answer to his prayers, Martha stood before him.

He didn’t blink, he didn’t question it, he merely jumped up and hugged her tight. “Martha,” he breathed, holding her close. “Martha.”

Pulling back just enough to see her, Jack framed her face with his hands and pressed his lips to hers. Quick, fast, a mere touch. “I thought you were in New York with the Osterhagen. How did you end up here? No matter.” He pulled her back into his arms. “You’re here.”

That was when he felt the knife against him. Jack slowly pulled back from the Martha who threatened to castrate him. And realized several things about Martha he ignored in his absolute joy in seeing her again.

“Let go of me,” Martha hissed.

Jack backed up, hands up and searched his lover’s face. “Martha?” But he already knew this was not his Martha; this woman might be Martha Jones, but she was not _his_ Martha Jones.

Unless his Martha successfully hid her pregnancy from him for several months.

“Well if it isn’t Captain Cheesecake.”

Jack whipped his gaze from not-his-Martha to the voice, already grinning. Who cared they were all going to die? At least he’d go out amongst friends.

“Well if it isn’t Mickey Mouse.”

Laughing, Mickey Smith hugged him, pounding him on the back. Then, suddenly serious, Mickey pulled back and scowled at him.

“Why were you hugging my wife?”

“Your _wife_?” Jack sputtered. Then laughed. “If we live, I’ll tell you all about it.”

“Jack!” Sarah Jane pushed past Mickey, a still-knife-wielding Martha, and hugged him. “Where’s Luke?”

“He stayed with Francine.”

Her face darkened and she looked like she might snatch not-his-Martha’s knife and castrate him instead. Jack held up his hands in surrender.

“Sarah Jane, it wasn’t my call. Francine promised to keep an eye on him and his friends.” He sighed and ran a hand over his face. “Not like it’s any consolation. The Daleks dropped the TARDIS into the engine core. I think Jenny piloted Her out, but I don’t know.”

Sarah Jane sniffed but nodded. “He’ll be…” she cut herself off. “He’s with Francine. They’ll look out for each other.”

“Where’s my daughter?”

“Jackie.” Jack looked up, stunned. “Jackie Tyler.”

She nodded, face scared and thunderous and crossed her arms over her chest. “Where’s Rose?” she demanded again.

“She’s in the Crucible with the Doctor,” Jack admitted. “She was safe when I last saw her. But they’re prisoners of Davros.”

Sarah Jane shuddered and Jack suddenly remembered she traveled with the Doctor when he first encountered Davros. Jackie looked ill, a sob caught in her throat, but nodded.

“Where’s...” Sarah Jane looked at not-his-Martha (really there had to be a better way to differentiate them) to Jack. “Where’s Martha?”

His Martha no doubt used Project Indigo—and that damned Osterhagen Key. No, Jack knew her. Knew her so well. And knew she wouldn’t just do it, wouldn’t blow up the planet. Not without talking to the Daleks first.

“Defending the Earth,” he whispered. It was all any of them could do.

“Well,” Sarah Jane said, voice shaking only a little. “It’s a good thing I brought this.” She held up the chain with a gem sparkling at the base. “The Verron Soothsayer who gave it to me said it was for the end of days.”

“This is the end, all right,” Jack muttered. Then stopped and looked closer at the gem. “Is that a Warp Star?”

“Going to tell us what a Warp Star is?” Mickey demanded.

“A warpfold conjugation trapped in a carbonized shell,” he said as if he read the passage in his Time Agency textbook all those years ago. Then he grinned, a grim, sad grin. “It’s an explosion, Mickey. An explosion waiting to happen.”

 ********  
“Jenny, what are you doing?” Donna demanded.

Jenny ignored her. “What’s the readouts say, Aunt Donna?”

She didn’t look up from her gizmo. She almost smiled, hearing the word in Dad’s voice. _It’s a_ gizmo _, Jenny—goes ding where there’s something._

The smile never formed.

“There’s a blip,” Shaun said.

Jenny frowned and looked over at him. He pointed to something at the base of the screen. She didn’t get up, instead using her sonic to calibrate the gizmo.

“Nothing major, there were 2 blips about—” she looked to Shaun.

“Twenty minutes apart, I guess.” Shaun frowned. “Not sure how this thing tells time.”

“About twenty minutes, yeah,” Aunt Donna agreed. “And that big spike, but otherwise nothing. What are you making?”

Just then Winston appeared from nowhere and curled at her side. Jenny paused and looked down at the cat. Her hand moved before she realized it and she stroked down his back. Winston arched into her touch and purred.

As if he knew she needed that comfort.

“You have a _cat_?” Shaun asked, stunned.

“Big picture, love,” Aunt Donna snapped.

Jenny didn’t so much as chuckle at the irony.

“What are you making” Aunt Donna asked again.

“The Daleks are made from Davros himself,” Jenny said and twisted wires together. Winston licked her hand and curled on her lap next to the gizmo. She looked at the cat and felt something in her ease. Just a little.

“He bragged about it—stupid. And they didn’t bother to check the TARDIS was really destroyed. Each one made from a single cell from the madman.”

She didn’t look up but continued to work, fine-tuning the DNA modulator to recognize Kaled DNA. Winston continued to purr at her side. She didn’t want to look up. She didn’t want them to ask what she planned on doing. “His genetic code runs through each one.”

“You’re going to shoot Davros with that?” Aunt Donna demanded.

Jenny merely nodded. The thought made her sick, but she didn’t have any other ideas. Not with time literally ticking away. Not with a single TARDIS against an entire fleet. Not with her family prisoners on board the Crucible.

“No,” Shaun said and Jenny wondered why Aunt Donna never told him about what she did. He was taking all this remarkably well, all things considered. “You’re going to destroy all of them with the gun.”

“I have to.” Her voice broke and Jenny swallowed. “My parents and little sister are on that ship.” She stood and hardened her voice, straightened her shoulders, steadied herself. Looked both of them in the eye. “The entire universe will be destroyed if I don’t. The entirety of _each_ universe, all the infinite possibilities.”

“Jenny.” Aunt Donna stepped around Shaun and grabbed her hand.

“I have to, Aunt Donna. You know I do.”

Donna nodded slowly. “I know, Jenny. But you’re not alone.”

Relief moved through her, but it wasn’t enough to ease the tight core of despair. The knowledge she was about to commit genocide.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Poem: The wondrous moment of our meeting by Alexander Pushkin from my Ten/Rose wedding fic, The Fire, and Tears, and Love Alive  
> Bad Wolf references are inspired by [The Pawnee creation myth and the Omaha wolf legend](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolves_in_folklore,_religion_and_mythology#United_States), both found from Wiki. No disrespect is intended.


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Daleks thought they won. They thought they beat the Doctor and his Children of Time. They forgot one very important thing—they forgot to check their scanners: Or Kicking Dalek Arse part 2  
> Thank you to @Chocolatequennk for the quick read-through

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: talk of (Dalek) genocide and the aftermath. Spoiler notes at the end.

Poem: The wondrous moment of our meeting by Alexander Pushkin from my Ten/Rose wedding fic, The Fire, and Tears, and Love Alive  
Wolf references: The Pawnee creation myth and the Omaha wolf legend, both found from Wiki. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolves_in_folklore,_religion_and_mythology#United_States

 

“This is Martha Jones, representing the Unified Intelligence Taskforce, on behalf of the human race.”

The Doctor looked up at the screen, stunned. Stunned but somehow not surprised. He felt Rose’s off combination of relief and fear.

“This message is for the Dalek Crucible,” Martha said. “Repeat. Can you hear me?”

“Put me through,” he demanded.

“It begins,” Davros gloated. “As Dalek Caan foretold.”

“The Children of Time will gather,” Caan repeated. “At the Heart of the Storm along the path of the Wolf.”

“Stop saying that!” He lost control for a moment and snapped his mouth closed, scrambling for the threads of control. “Put me through,” he demanded again.

“Rose! Doctor!” Martha looked from Rose to him and said sadly but clearly. “I’m sorry, I had to.”

“Oh,” Davros sighed mournfully, “but the Doctor is powerless. My prisoner. State your intent.”

“Powerless?” Martha shook her head and sat straighter. In a clear voice she looked Davros in the eye and didn’t flinch. “I’ve got the Osterhagen Key. Leave this planet and its people alone or I’ll use it.”

“Osterhagen what?” The Doctor parroted, feeling out of the loop. Or the storm. No, not using that analogy. “What’s an Osterhagen Key?”

“I’m sorry,” Martha said again, voice soft. Then, louder, more confident, “There’s a chain of 25 nuclear warheads placed in strategic points beneath the Earth’s crust. If I use the key, they detonate and the Earth gets ripped apart.”

“Martha.” Rose started then stopped.

“ _What?_ ” The Doctor cried. He looked from Martha to Rose then back again. “Who invented that?” He shook his head in dismissal. “Well, someone called Osterhagen, I suppose. Martha,” he met her gaze on the screen and asked, though he knew the answer so clearly. “Are you insane?”

“Doctor,” Rose said. “Doctor, it’s okay.”

He shot a look to her. She looked pained, jaw clenched face tense. The Doctor blinked. What did Rose know he didn’t? _Jenny._ The answer came immediately on the heels of the question. But why hadn’t his daughter told him?

“The Osterhagen Key is to be used if the suffering of the human race is so great, so without hope,” Martha said, “that this becomes the final option.”

“Martha—” the Doctor shook his head. “Martha, don’t. Please.”

“Don’t argue with me, Doctor!” She ordered and spared him a glace. “Because it’s more than that. Now, I reckon the Daleks need these 27 planets for something. But what if it becomes 26 planets?”

The Doctor stilled. Oh, she was brilliant. Flawed, but— _“Martha,”_ he tried again.

“You know I’m right, Doctor.” She looked from him, a small, sad smile, to Rose. She nodded to Rose, a silent agreement. Her face hardened when she looked back at Davros. “What happens then, Daleks? Would you risk it?”

“Second transmission, internal,” a Dalek intoned.

“Captain Jack Harkness, calling all little Dalek boys and girls.” Jack’s face appeared on screen, Sarah Jane next to him. “Are you receiving me?”

“Jack,” Martha said, voice soft.

Jack glanced at her and nodded, a soft smile on his face. Then looked back to Davros. “Don’t send in your goons or I’ll set this thing off.”

“Mum?” Rose gasped. _“Mum!”_

“And Mr. Mickey.” The Doctor grinned then frowned. “Martha?” He looked from the Martha with the Osterhagen Key to the woman beside Mickey. Ohhh…parallel world Martha. Interesting. “Captain,” he said, “what are you doing?”

“I’ve got a Warp Star wired into the mainframe,” Jack said in that hard, Time Agent’s voice, the commander, the leader. “I break this shell, the entire Crucible goes up.”

The Doctor wanted to protest. His _family_ was onboard this Crucible. But he knew what they were doing. Fear closed his throat. He didn’t want this for any of them. They deserved to live long happy lives. Not commit genocide.

“Where did you get a Warp Star?” he asked instead, voice hoarse.

“From me,” Sarah Jane admitted. “We had no choice. We saw what happened to the prisoners.”

“Impossible.” Davros leaned forward. “That face. After all these years.”

“Davros.” Sarah Jane nodded. “It’s been quite a while. Sarah Jane Smith. Remember?”

“Oh,” Davros laughed, “this is meant to be. The circle of Time is closing. You were there on Skaro at the very beginning of my creation.”

“And I’ve learnt how to fight since then,” she snapped. “You let the Doctor and Rose go or this Warp Star gets opened.”

“I’ll do it,” Jack promised. His eyes didn’t stray to any of them. Focused solely on Davros. “Don’t imagine I wouldn’t.”

“And the prophecy unfolds,” Davros said.

That was not what the Doctor thought the madman was going to say.

“The Doctor’s soul is revealed!” Caan added. “See him. See the heart of him.”

“We are the heart of him,” Rose snapped. “We are his family. We stand together.”

“Oh, but Miss Tyler,” Davros said and the Doctor wanted to rip his voice modulator out so he’d just. _Stop. **Talking.**_ “This is the man who abhors violence, who never carries a gun. Do you know him? Truly? Because this is the truth, Doctor. You take ordinary people and you fashion them into weapons.”

Davros laughed and the Doctor knew the truth in those words. Martha with the Osterhagen Key. Jack and Sarah with the Warp Star. And Rose. His beloved hearts, so strong as she stood by his side. So willing to fight.

He’d done that to them. Sweet Martha who wanted to save people. Rose who saved him. Sarah Jane now brought to this, threatening them all with a warp star. What had he done? What had he done to his friends? To his loved ones?

“Behold your Children of Time!” Davros shouted.

“We are family,” Rose said. Her voice no louder than normal, but it echoed through the Crucible. Or maybe just through him. “We stand together to defend the Earth and the universe. You’re wrong, Davros. You’re very wrong.”

“I made the Daleks, Doctor,” Davros boasted. “You made these killers.”

“They’re trying to help,” he whispered.

He looked at Rose, defiant. And realized what it was they all did. Sacrificed themselves for the greater good. Rose offered a slight smile, the merest tilt to her lips as if to say _Finally you understand._

Stronger, bolstered by this new knowledge, he turned to Davros. “They’re saving their world. The multiverse. But then you wouldn’t understand that, would you, Davros?” He laughed again, harsh and understanding.

He _had_ done this. Made his friends into those who killed only to protect. Who willingly sacrificed themselves for others. Or maybe they always had been this way and he brought the universe to them—a bigger scale.

With their home at stake, with the very fabric of reality unraveling, what else was there for them to do? For any of them?

What would he do? What had he done? They understood the consequences; the Doctor knew that deep in his soul.

“Your Daleks only know death,” he said, louder. “How to kill anything _not_ a Dalek.”

“We know how to live,” Rose said. “How to love. How to fight for our families.”

Davros only cackled again. “Oh, but Doctor, you’re wrong. You sow only death in your path. Already I have seen them sacrifice today, for their beloved Doctor. The Earth woman who fell opening the Subwave Network.”

“Harriet,” Rose gasped and added in a bare whisper. “Tish?”

The Doctor’s gaze flew to Martha. She didn’t know, she couldn’t. Maybe Tish still lived…he didn’t know, the Daleks, with the exception of Davros’s boasting today, did not take prisoners. Not when they already had an army of pure-Daleks.

“How many more?” Davros laughed. “Just think. How many have died in your name?”

“They did not die in the Doctor’s name,” Rose snapped.

“We protect in his name,” Martha added.

“We keep our world safe in his name,” Jack said.

“And we fight for the freedom to do so,” Sarah Jane added.

“Are you certain?” Davros demanded. “Are you so certain in your words, your belief? The Doctor, the man who keeps running, never looking back because he dare not, out of shame. This is my final victory, Doctor. I have shown you yourself.”

“You do not know him,” Rose snapped. “You can’t, because you don’t understand compassion. Love. Hope.”

“Hope,” the Doctor repeated and looked to Rose.

Davros wasn’t wrong about him and the knowledge made him sick. But Rose put the broken man he’d been back together. She gave him love and understanding. She gave him hope.

“Enough,” the Supreme Dalek interrupted. “Engage defense zero five.”

“It’s the Crucible or the Earth,” Martha said, 

_Transmat engaged._

“No!” Martha shouted. She disappeared from the screen, her key dropping in a final clattering of despair.

At the same moment, Jack appeared in front of the holding cells he and Rose remained trapped in. Jack easily caught Martha as she stumbled from the transmat beam.

“I’ve got you,” Jack said and crushed her in a tight hug. “It’s all right.”

“Jack,” Martha said.

Sarah stumbled on the floor, along with Jackie, Mickey…and Martha. A very _pregnant_ Martha. Opening his mouth, the Doctor wanted to say something—not that he knew what, precisely—when Mickey rushed to her side and caught her. Held her close.

Oh. Ohhh.

“Don’t move, any of you,” he commanded. “Stay still.” 

The holding cell shimmered around him. He found Rose’s gaze, she looked thrilled and sickened, tears shining in her gaze as she looked from Mickey and Jackie to him.

_“Jenny,”_ she reminded him.

He nodded, the barest movement of his head.

_“She needs a little more time.”_

Whatever his daughter planned sent cold fear through his veins. Mouth dry, he nodded again.

“Mum,” Rose said and looked like she wanted to run to Jackie.

“Rose,” Jackie gasped and stepped forward. “Oh, Rose, look at you!”

“Guard them!” Davros commanded. “On your knees, all of you. Surrender!”

“Do as he says,” the Doctor ordered.

He looked from Rose to his friends…family. They knelt, Mickey helping his Martha to do so despite her pregnancy. Martha looked, stunned, at her twin even as she obeyed and clasped her hands behind her head.

“This isn’t over,” he heard Rose say just loud enough to carry between holding cells. Carry to their friends.

“The final prophecy is in place,” Davros once more crowed. “The Doctor and his Children, all gathered as witnesses.”

“Where’s Jenny?” Martha demanded. She looked franticly from him to Rose. Her breath caught as Jack murmured her name.

Rose met his gaze and nodded. “It’s all right, Martha. Trust me.”

“Supreme Dalek,” Davros continued, seeming uncaring about the humans’ conversation. The Doctor hoped it stayed that way. “The time has come. Now, detonate the Reality Bomb!”

“Activate planetary alignment field,” the Supreme Dalek intoned. “Universal Reality Detonation in two hundred rels.”

Time. Jenny needed time. The Doctor had no flipping idea what she planned, but he’d buy her that time. Any way he could.

“You can’t, Davros! Just listen to me!” he yelled. “Just stop!”

“Ah, ha, ha, ha! Nothing can stop the detonation!” Davros cried. “Nothing and no one! Stand witness, Time Lord!” Davros continued. “Stand witness, Humans. Your strategies have failed; your weapons are useless. Playing for time will not help you. The end of the universe has come!”

“But what happens after?” the Doctor tried, frantic. Desperate. Terrified. Hands fisted at his side. And feeling so very much the destroyer Davros called him. Angry and reckless. “When the Daleks have no one left to murder or subjugate. What then?”

Before either Davros, Caan, or the Supreme Dalek had the chance to reply, the tell-tale sound of the TARDIS materializing echoed throughout the Crucible. _Jenny_. He whipped around and stared at his beloved ship with his daughter at the controls.

“Jenny,” Rose breathed and her relief hit him like a force.

“Impossible!” Davros screamed.

“That’s my daughter,” Rose snapped. “She’s not impossible.” Rose grinned at him, a quick flash of relief—they were alive and here. “Just a bit unlikely.” 

“Brilliant,” Jack said.

“What’s she planning?” Martha asked.

“I have seen the fire and the wind,” Caan cried into the chaos of the TARIDS landing and the Supreme Dalek screaming to _exterminate!_ and the shocked gasps of Mickey and Jackie. “I heard the wolf howl. I have seen the end of everything Dalek, and the Wolf Storm must make it happen.”

The Doctor gaped at the mad Dalek. _The end of everything Dalek?_ That…that was not what he expected. The end of time? The end of the universes? The end of it all? Sure. The end of everything _Dalek_ , however…

“Davros you have betrayed the Daleks!” And the Supreme Dalek actually sounded furious.

“It was Dalek Caan!” Davros cowered. “You promised me, Dalek Caan! Why did you not foresee this?”

Suddenly the TARDIS door opened.

The Doctor tensed. He stared at the empty doorway and waited. Waited. Waited. No sign of Jenny, Donna, or Shaun. His hearts pounded and it hurt to breathe but still they waited. The entire Crucible waited in a bubble of silence and anticipation.

He flicked his gaze from the doorway to Rose. She met his eyes, as frightened as he.

Still nothing.

Then, tail high, looking for all the world as if he were a king scrutinizing his subjects, _Winston_ walked out of the TARDIS doors. The cat sat a foot or so from the threshold and licked his paw, looking as bored and regal as ever.

“What is that creature?” the Supreme Dalek asked.

“What trick is this, Doctor?” Davros demanded.

“This would always have happened. And always happened and will always happen,” Caan said. “I only helped the Wolf Storm.”

“You betrayed the Daleks!” Davros screeched.

“I saw the Daleks.” Caan’s voice grew weaker. “What we have done and will do and are doing, throughout time and space, I saw the truth of us, Creator, and I decreed: _No More_!”

The Doctor opened his mouth. Closed it with a snap. _No more._ Once upon a time he, too, decreed _no more_. He looked at Caan in a new light, then to a fuming Davros to Winston—oh. He met Rose’s gaze. A diversion.

He looked back to the door just in time to see Jenny standing a foot in front of Winston. Outside the forcefield. She held a gun of some sort and aimed it at Davros. Without warning, without conversation or running into the fray or a hint of emotions, she calmly fired.

The blast hit Davros square in the chest. He rocked back, an aborted cry on his lips.

In the silent aftermath of Davros’s death knell, the gun clattered to the floor, a deafening shot. Jenny froze, pale and stunned and devastated, and stared at Davros. The Doctor felt it so clearly it was a physical sensation in him and on his skin and tightening his hearts.

“Jenny.”

She jerked but didn’t look at him. Instead she ran to a panel of controls and flicked several switches. The holding cells faltered and dissipated.

“This is the end of all things Dalek,” Caan said as the Daleks spun madly, half-formed demands for information echoing around them as they shuddered and smoked. “The loop must close, the loop has closed, the loop is closing. The Wolf howls into the Storm and seals the fate of all things Dalek!”

The Doctor ignored Caan and easily caught Rose when she ran into his arms. He kissed her hard, held her tight. Brushed her hair off her face and kissed her again, felt their bond flare to life and warm him deep in his soul.

“Rose,” he breathed. “Rose.”

He pulled back just enough to press his lips to the top of Aušra Susan’s head. They already moved, his little family, to where Jenny stood by the controls.

“I’m sending the planets back to where they belong,” Jenny said in a monotone and worked frantically to do just that.

“Oh, Jenny.” Rose moved to her side, hand hovering over her shoulder. Jenny flinched. Rose dropped her hand but stayed close.

“We don’t have enough time,” the Doctor said and worked in tandem with his daughter. Jenny didn’t look at him, she merely worked around him, flicking switches and intoning which planets she worked on so they didn’t overlap.

“Everyone in the TARDIS!” Rose shouted. “The entire Dalek fleet is going to explode. In! In! Move!”

“Last one!” The Doctor called. “Oh, look Earth! There you go, little blue planet, back where you belong.”

Jenny stopped and looked up from the controls. She moved slightly, just enough to stare at the body of Davros. At the madly spinning Daleks, now imploding and exploding and shooting each other. She didn’t move, didn’t speak, simply stood there, face set. Winston sat on her foot and rubbed his head against her leg. She didn’t even look at him.

The Doctor wasn’t sure she even breathed.

“Jenny.” He eased around the controls and stood next to her. The Daleks continued to implode and they really, really needed to leave. Now. “Jenny, love, it’s over.”

“I killed them.” She looked up at him with wide blue eyes, suspiciously dry, as dry as her voice. “I killed them all.”

“You—” he cut himself off and looked helplessly to Rose.

“Jenny” Rose breathed and hugged her. “Let’s get into the TARDIS. Come on, love. Let’s go home.”

Jenny looked at the destruction. The Doctor stood beside her and wrapped his arm around her shoulders, hugged her tight. Rose stood on her other side and together they watched. Daleks shuddered, controls faltered, the Supreme Dalek intoned over and over _What is that creature? What is that creature?_

Jack stood beside him, Martha on Rose’s side—Donna with her hand on Jenny’s shoulder and Shaun next to her. Sarah Jane, Mickey and the other Martha, Jackie. They all stood with his family. Stood with Jenny.

They stood just inside the TARDIS forcefield, safe for the moment. A moment they needed.

“You saved all of creation, Jenny,” the Doctor whispered. “You saved us all.”

“I killed them all. I’m the destroyer of worlds.”

“No!” he barked.

“The Wolf Cub has seen what happens,” Caan said weakly.

The Doctor wondered how it still lived. But then it wasn’t of the same stock as these Daleks, it was from before, from the actual Time War. Not Davros’s DNA, no, but still Kaled— _how was it still alive?_

“The Cub of the Wolf Storm has seen what I’ve seen and will see and have seen.”

“Stop it!” Rose snapped. “You orchestrated this, all this? What else did you see? What else about Jenny?”

“The path does not end,” Caan said. “The fire twists throughout time and space. The Bad Wolf.”

His breath caught and the Doctor wanted to interrogate Caan. But those were the last words Dalek Cann spoke.

“I killed them all,” Jenny repeated.

He pressed his lips to her temple. “Yes,” he agreed, unable to lie to her despite his fierce desire to do just that. To protect his daughter. “But sometimes—”

His voice broke and he looked helplessly to Rose. She offered a small, sad smile, more a press of her lips than anything. One hand cupped beneath Aušra Susan the other holding Jenny’s hand.

“Sometimes, doing what’s right isn’t easy. But it needs to be done.” Rose swallowed and a tear escaped down her cheek. “I’m sorry, Jenny, love.”

The Doctor wanted to wipe it away, wanted to hold her and comfort her. But Rose once more stood strong and comforted him. Them.

“If you hadn’t done it, Davros and the Daleks would’ve destroyed everything,” he said. “All of creation from the dawn of time to the end.”

“I—I—” Jenny shook her head.

“Let’s go home, love.” Rose looked at him and nodded. “It’s time to go home.”

The Doctor turned and they left the destruction of the Crucible behind. The planets were where they belonged, even the lost moon of Posh and Pyrovilla, the Daleks destroyed, or would be in another 28 seconds once the self-destruct he enabled took effect and blew the entire fleet out of the sky. Just in case not all the Daleks died when Davros did.

And Caan…he looked over his shoulder to the bulbous, lifeless eye of the last Dalek.

Caan’s words would haunt with him forever. The Doctor shuddered as he closed the TARDIS doors behind him.

Locked his family in tight and left death behind.

“Let’s go home,” Rose said from his side.

“Rose!” Jackie ran to her and hugged her tight. “Oh, Rose, I never thought I’d see you again!”

“Mum,” Rose cried, her voice breaking. “What are you doing here? We got Mickey’s call that he was jumping through but he didn’t say anything about you!”

“I called weeks ago, Rose,” Mickey said, hand holding tight to Martha’s.

“Weeks?” Rose echoed faintly. “We got the call just before…” she looked at him then at Jenny.

“Who’s this?” Jackie asked into the awkward silence. She peaked into the sling holding Aušra Susan. “Oh, aren’t you precious.”

Aušra Susan babbled at Jackie, but the Doctor very clearly heard _Grandma_ from the girl. A jolt of pride went through him.

Rose looked at him. The Doctor knew she wanted to sit and talk with her mum, with Mickey, but her eyes drifted to Jenny who stood off to the side and stared blindly at the grating.

In the background he heard Martha calling Francine and Sarah calling Luke and Jack calling Alistair. He heard Donna calling Wilf and Shaun asking a dozen questions as he eyed Winston who ignored all of them.

“Let’s get back to Earth, first,” Rose said. She hugged Jackie again. “Then I’ll introduce you to your granddaughters. Doctor?”

“Yes!” He nodded enthusiastically. “Earth! Right! Let’s go.”

His family remained quiet. Jenny didn’t move as he and Rose piloted the TARDIS. Jack and Martha joined them, and together they returned home. The Doctor rushed to the doors and flung them open onto Francine’s dark street.

The rest of their family waited for them there.

It was chaotic, happy chaos as everyone hugged and cried and fawned over Martha—the pregnant Martha—and asked dozens of questions. Rose hung back. Still holding Aušra Susan, she waited with him in the TARDIS. The Doctor looked at her then to Jenny who hadn’t moved.

“You saved us,” Rose said slowly and turned to look at Jenny who didn’t cross the grating but stood, isolated. Alone. “You did what you needed to do.”

“Is this what it felt like, Dad?” Jenny asked. She looked up at him, eyes haunted and dark and so unlike the loving, happy daughter he knew. “Is this what it felt like when you…with Gallifrey and the Time War?”

Emotion choked him, a solid lump in his throat. “Jenny, I never wanted this for you. If it could’ve been me, I would trade places with you in a heartsbeat.”

“It was never meant to be you. You heard Caan,” Jenny whispered, a broken sentence of words with no real emotion behind them. “It was always meant to be me.”

“He,” Rose started, “Caan. He saw all of time and manipulated the Daleks to this point.” She shuddered and he found her hand, anchored himself as much as her. “He knew that having Daleks in the universe only meant more death.”

“He changed,” Jenny whispered.

The Doctor stilled. “Yes,” he agreed, the word slow and elongated. “Yes he did. Just like another Dalek.”

Rose looked at him sharply but he kept his gaze on Jenny, though his daughter didn’t look up. “Your mother changed a Dalek once,” he said.

Jenny did look up then, head jerking at the news. “You did?” she asked, eyes still dry.

“What you did, Jenny, saved us all.” The Doctor stepped forward. Jenny didn’t flinch so he took another step. “You saved the web of time and each and every universe. All of infinity, all of creation.”

“Untold trillions,” Rose added. “You saved them all.”

“How many Daleks did I kill?” Jenny asked.

“Don’t ask that,” the Doctor said firmly. But knew a part of her mind already calculated that number. He already had. “Ask _How many did I save?_ ”

Jenny watched him for a long, long moment. Slowly she nodded. “How many beings did I save?”

“All of them, Jenny,” he said. She sobbed and he wrapped her in his arms. “You saved all of them.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Poem: The wondrous moment of our meeting by Alexander Pushkin from my Ten/Rose wedding fic, The Fire, and Tears, and Love Alive  
> Bad Wolf references are inspired by [The Pawnee creation myth and the Omaha wolf legend](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolves_in_folklore,_religion_and_mythology#United_States), both found from Wiki. No disrespect is intended.


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aftermath. Mentions of secondary (tertiary?) character death. Also, the ending is NSFW. I based Francine’s profession off a literal 3 second scene in Broadchurch season 2.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2nd to last chapter...I may cry.

Rose stood with the Doctor, Jenny, and Aušra in the TARDIS doorway. The rest of her family, including Mum and Mickey, talked and laughed and hugged on the street outside Francine’s. But her small family stayed off to the side, together but not.

A moment alone in the frenzied melee of reunion.

“Are you up for this?” the Doctor asked Jenny.

She nodded, tired and weary. “No. But I’m not sure I’ll ever be.”

Rose pressed her lips to Jenny’s temple, brushed her fingers along the sensitive skin and opened the connection with her daughter. _“You will be,”_ she promised.

Jenny looked at her, eyes a stormy grey and sad, so haunted and sad. “Thanks, Mum.”

“It won’t happen immediately, not tonight or tomorrow. But I promise you,” Rose said and brushed her lips over Jenny’s temple again. Rested her head against her daughter’s. “I promise you, we’ll be here for you every step. Every time you need us.”

Slowly, as if she fought it, the tension in Jenny’s shoulders relaxed. None of them moved, almost as if they couldn’t join the reunion, couldn’t hug and smile and laugh with the rest of the family. Rose’s heart broke for her daughter but she didn’t know how to help her.

Rose watched Wilf cross the road, saw Donna and Shaun behind him, quiet and slightly off to the side. Slowly, nodding to Shaun, Donna crossed with her gramps.

“Oh, sweetheart.” He hugged Jenny. “I’m sorry. You shouldn’t have had to do that.”

Wilf looked at Rose then the Doctor and shook his head. “I’m old soldier,” he sighed. “I did my duty only the war was already won.” He stood straighter. “But I did my duty.”

“Gramps.” Donna shook her head, a fond smile on her face. Then she turned to Jenny, hugged her tight. “You weren’t alone. I may not have fired that gun, but you weren’t alone, Jenny.”

“Wilf.” The Doctor stopped, clenched his jaw until his dimples deepened. 

“I never killed a man,” he admitted. “And I’m not ashamed of that.” He hugged Jenny again. “But you, sweetheart. Oh, I’m so sorry.”

Rose blinked back tears, tried to swallow around the lump in her throat. Everyone was so happy to be alive, thrilled the Daleks were finally, ultimately destroyed, they hadn’t thought about Jenny.

She knew they would eventually—Francine would talk to her about it, put on her counselor hat instead of her Grandmother hat and sit Jenny down to talk. Jack would understand, Martha, too. Even Mickey might say something though he didn’t know Jenny. But he knew death.

But for Wilf to do it, for him to break from his family and do it now—Rose stepped around Jenny and hugged the man.

“Thank you.” She pulled back and smiled around tears choking her and worry and sorrow and the fierce need to protect her child.

“Thanks, Wilf,” Jenny whispered. “I—I really—” she shook her head and sniffed, hard. “I’d like to talk about…sometime if you’d like. I’d like to hear about your life. Your time in the war.”

“Anything you want to talk about, Jenny.” Wilf nodded and smiled, stepping back and sniffing hard himself. “We’ll sit on the hill and look at the stars, eh?”

“I’d love that,” Jenny admitted.

“Good, good.” Wilf nodded again and walked back to Shaun and a hovering Sylvia.

“Donna.” Rose smiled, reached out for her friend. _Thank you_ , she mouthed, not sure the words would make it past her lips, past the lump in her throat.

Donna nodded and looked helplessly to Jenny. She opened her mouth but no words emerged. Instead she hugged Jenny again. “You’re not alone,” she whispered, voice breaking. Then she turned, walking back to her family. 

“We should.” The Doctor cleared his throat and looked at Jenny again, met Rose’s gaze. “It’s—I’m sorry. It’s time…”

“Already?” Rose sucked in a breath but nodded. She barely had a moment with her mum. Looking to where Jackie stood with Mickey and Martha, she cleared her throat and nodded again. “All right.” The words came out a mere whisper.

“Jackie!” the Doctor called. None of them moved. Rose looked at him and knew he’d not rush Jenny. She needed time and if anyone understood that, it was the Doctor.

“Oh, there you lot are.” Jackie broke from the crowd.

She ran the few feet to them and hugged Rose again and stood beside her, so close. Rose, heart aching, throat burning, rested her head on Jackie’s shoulder. 

“We need to get you three back—”

“I need to pick up Tony.”

Rose’s head jerked from Jackie’s shoulder.

“Right.” The Doctor stopped. Eyed her. “Tony?”

“Tony? You brought _Tony_?” Rose demanded. “Mum! The cannon is dangerous! How could you—”

“Rose,” Jackie said softly. A tear slid down her face.

Rose panicked. Suddenly she couldn’t breathe and knew what her mum was going to tell her. Her hands tightened on Aušra who squirmed and kicked. Suddenly it made sense why Mickey’s Martha (no that didn’t sound good, either) jumped while pregnant.

“What.” She stopped and licked her lips.

“Mama, down.” Aušra demanded.

Rose looked down at her and set her on the ground. She immediately toddled over to Jenny and pulled her sister on the road with her. Winston, of course, deigned to make an appearance then and curled around them.

“What happened?” Rose asked.

“Tony’s at Sarah Jane’s,” Jackie said in that same quiet voice Rose so rarely heard from her mum. “We left him and the rest of the group there when we jumped.”

“Rest?” the Doctor snapped. “What rest? How many jumped through with you?”

“There’s nothing left in that other world,” Jackie said. She cleared her throat and sounded as strong and sad as Rose ever heard her.

“Where’s Pete?” Rose whispered.

Jackie only shook her head.

“Mum,” Rose said again, voice rising, _“Where’s Pete?”_

“There was a mob—”

Rose’s breath hitched. She felt the Doctor’s hand in hers but couldn’t look from her mum.

“He got me and Tony and Martha out, but he—” Jackie’s voice trailed off and she looked into the darkened street. Absently wiped her cheeks. “Mickey found him…later. Said he never stood a chance.”

“Mum.” Rose hugged her tight, not sure what to say.

The joy at seeing her mum again lay crushed beneath the weight of why. Of what happened while she’d been here, living her life with the Doctor.

“Tish is on telly!” Clive’s voice cut through the noise, the joy and grief.

Rose looked up, confused. She didn’t know how to process all this. It was so much: Jenny, her mum and Tony here, Mickey and Martha, Pete’s death…

“Let’s go inside,” the Doctor suggested.

He lifted Aušra and Winston, and nodded to Jenny. Little Keisha ran over and jumped in Jenny’s arms. Rose watched as Jenny easily caught her, held her close. She couldn’t hear what Keisha said, but a little more of the tension seeped from Jenny at her best friend’s words.

A softness eased around her heart and Rose thought it might be okay. Not now, maybe not for a long time, but eventually her family would be okay.

The house was quiet when they entered. Everyone else already gathered around the telly where Tish spoke. Rose didn’t recognize the background, the plain wall behind Tish. Harriet’s home or her reelection headquarters? A news studio? But Tish stood strong and fearless before each reporter and looked directly at the camera.

There was absolute silence—in Francine’s house, around Tish, from the reporters. It hummed through Rose in direct contrast to the noise from the Crucible, from the reunion.

“I know you’re scared and I know many of us are grieving. But if there’s anything Harriet Jones—former Prime Minister,” she added to the quiet laughter of reporters and her family alike. And probably, Rose thought, to anyone who ever met Harriet or heard her speak.

“Taught me it was that you continue on. Many of us need help—go outside and help a person, just one. Many of us lost our family and friends—listen to a stranger. Help them board up the windows and doors the Daleks broke. And there are those of us who think now is the time to loot, to steal and threaten, to kill and hurt. But we’re already hurting and now is a time for the human race to come together.”

Tish’s voice broke and she sucked in a deep breath but she didn’t stop. Didn’t waver. Looked directly at the camera, eyes dry, voice strong.

“Harriet Jones died tonight by a Dalek blast. She fought to the last, ensuring Planet Earth had the chance to survive. She worked tirelessly not only for this country but for all of humanity. For the entire universe. Don’t let her death be in vain.”

The commentator reappeared and spoke about the PM making a speech. Rose wondered who the prime minister was now. She hadn’t kept up with politics after returning. There was reconnecting with the Doctor and friendships with Martha and Jack; there was travel and family and their own children.

Still, she found it interesting Tish Jones’s speech appeared before the PM’s. Telling.

“She’s alive.” Martha looked sick and Mickey helped her sit.

“Oh, love,” Jackie said and sat beside her, holding her hand.

Rose thought she looked every bit the mum to Martha as Francine had been to her these last years. An odd kind of protective jealousy tore through her. Jackie was _her_ mum. And yet, for the last however many years since Rose retuned to this universe, she had not been.

Francine filled the maternal roll for her as well as Martha. Rose looked to Francine and saw the longing on her own face.

This reunion might not be as easy as Rose thought when she first saw her mum on that screen.

“What—” Francine cut herself off and looked helplessly between Marthas.

“She was Cyberdized.” Other Martha looked up and flinched from Francine. She looked to their Martha instead. “My entire family—Mum, Dad, Tish, Leo…they were all Cyberdized.”

“I’m sorry,” Martha said and knelt before her double.

“I wasn’t there. I was with—” She shook her head. “He died. Later. In the chaos after.”

“Babe,” Mickey said and hugged her tighter. “Don’t.”

“She’s alive here, Mickey,” Other Martha said. “They’re all alive.” She looked up then. Gaze bouncing from Martha to Francine and Clive, to Leo and Shonara then back to Martha, finally settling on Mickey. “You’re all alive. I—” She gasped for breath and stood, shaking, legs wobbly. “I can’t.”

She tried to run from the room, but her knees buckled. Rose wanted to help her, but didn’t think Other Martha’d accept it. This wasn’t her best friend, this wasn’t her sister. This was a stranger. A familiar stranger, but only in appearance. Instead she looked helplessly on.

No, this was not the happy reunion she envisioned.

Oh, she didn’t mind there being another Martha. She didn’t think. Or even that Mickey obviously found love with her. A family. 

But the happy lightness she always thought a reunion between her mum and Mickey would bring was colored with death and sorrow, with deep-seated grief and uncertainty.

“I’ll get everyone else,” the Doctor said into the strange silence between awkward and grieving and happiness. “Jackie—you want to come? Make sure they know not to open fire?”

“Yeah.” Jackie nodded and pressed a kiss to Other Martha’s temple. “Yeah, I’ll come.”

“Jenny?” Rose asked. “Do you want to stay? Or…?”

Jenny looked up from where she, Keisha, and Aušra sat on the floor of the hallway, half hidden by shadows. Winston was there, too.

“Yeah.” Jenny stood but didn’t look at the rest of their family. She lifted easily lifted Aušra and kept her close; Winston snuggled into Aušra’s arms. Jenny looked like she wanted to say more but simply nodded.

“Can I come?” Keisha asked. “I want to stay with Jenny.”

“Sure.” Rose said and glanced at Shonara. The other woman nodded, tears glistening her eyes. “Sure, you can come, darling.” Rose stopped and said softly, “We’ll be just outside, after we pick up…after we get the others from Sarah Jane’s, we’ll park in our usual spot.”

Shonara nodded, Donna hugged her again. “We’ll be here,” Donna promised. 

Rose swallowed hard and failed miserably at a smile. 

The subdued group walked to the TARDIS. The sun just started to rise and lighten the empty street. No one looted this neighborhood and Rose wondered if that was because of Tish’s speech, they were too exhausted, or they were terrified of Francine.

Probably a little of all three.

“I’m sure Mr. Smith kept them safe,” Sarah Jane was saying as Rose opened the TARDIS door. “There were no Daleks on my street; as long as they stayed indoors, they should be fine.”

“If they stayed in the attic with Mr. Smith, he’d have shielded them,” Luke added as he moved easily around the console.

“I told them to,” Jackie said and looked from Jenny to Aušra to Rose and back again. “They’d better have listened.”

Rose almost smiled. But the heartbreaking distress she felt from Jenny and the news about Pete stopped her. She wondered about Jake, but didn’t want to know. Hoped he was with the rest of the group, but somehow didn’t think…she stopped and sucked in a deep breath.

“Mum.” Rose cleared her throat and took Aušra from Jenny. “Keisha, on the seat next to Aušra. Make sure you’re belted in.”

“I know, Aunt Rose.” Keisha rolled her eyes.

Jackie snorted. “Feisty one, isn’t she?”

“She’s Leo and Shonara’s little girl.” Rose strapped Aušra in her seat and eyed Keisha’s belt, but of course it was strapped tight. She ran a hand down both girls’ head, just to assure herself they were here and safe. “She’s nobody’s fool.”

“And Jenny?”

Rose turned to look at her mum. “Jenny is…” Her smile was small, but the mere mention of her eldest—of either child—made her smile. “Jenny just needs time. I’m sorry, Mum. This wasn’t how I wanted you to meet her.”

“Oh, Rose.” Jackie hugged her again and Rose wondered if she needed the contact, the reassurance as much as Rose.

Rose wanted to say more. Introduce Jenny to her grandmother. Have a real family reunion. But Jenny wasn’t ready and if there was one thing Rose vowed it was to give her children space when they needed it. Not hover and nag.

“Have a seat, Mum. There’s room next to Aušra. I need to help the Doctor pilot the TARDIS.”

But they already landed. She felt the gentle settling of the TARDIS even as she turned to the console. The Doctor looked at her, face strained and pale, freckles stark against his skin, eyes haunted. His jaw clenched and frowned harder, dimples deep along his mouth.

_“Doctor.”_ She took another step toward him.

He sucked in a deep breath and looked up, blindly stared at the cathedral ceiling of the TARDIS interior. Rose took his hand, wrapped her other around his wrist. She didn’t know what to say but held onto him anyway.

She’d never let him fall.

“We’re here.” He cleared his throat. “Let’s go meet the gang.”

Jackie ran to the doors and pushed on them. Jenny gently reached around and pulled them open.

“Thanks, love,” Jackie said and smiled at her. “Swear that sign says to _pull to open_. Bloody alien.”

Then she was on the street, Sarah Jane and Luke next to her. Rose hung back, waiting. She didn’t know…she wanted to see Tony. But it’d been so long and she never thought—

“I’m sure he missed his big sister,” the Doctor said.

Rose shot him a look but only nodded. Jenny stood beside them, Keisha and Aušra next to her. She didn’t know what to do. Go with Jackie? Stay with her family? Rose chewed her thumb cuticle and closed her eyes. She didn’t know what to do.

She belonged here, with her family, felt it deep inside and embraced it.

“I don’t belong there,” she heard herself whisper. The deafening certainty of it settled around her. Made her stomach churn yet felt so right.

Aušra tugged on her trousers and Rose automatically lifted her into her arms. She immediately squirmed again and Rose sighed. Setting her back on the ground, she watched Aušra toddle around them, each step more confident until she and Keisha ran in circles around each other, laughing and giggling like it was a normal day.

Today was not a normal day.

“Rose.”

“So much time has passed,” she whispered. “I’ve missed so much of their lives. I doubt Tony even remembers me. It’s been years.”

The Doctor’s hand slipped into hers and she felt the steadiness of his touch clear through her. Slowly, almost afraid to look from Sarah Jane’s house, she met his gaze. He didn’t offer a smile, not now, not after so much time and so much understanding between them.

_(“I’m always all right,” he tried to tell her once. Rose had snorted and folded her arms over her chest, glaring at him. “Don’t lie to me, Doctor. I know you better than that.”)_

Beside her, Jenny remained silent but stepped closer. Rose looked at her daughter and tried for a smile. Almost succeeded.

“We’ll be all right,” Rose whispered. “Together.”

“Rose!” Jackie called.

She looked up and watched Mum and a boy walk toward her. No longer the toddler she remembered, this boy was—eight? Ten? Older than Rose thought.

“You remember your sister, Rose?” Jackie said, hand on Tony’s shoulder as they crept closer.

Tony hesitated but looked defiant at the same time. He nodded. “Yeah.”

“Tony.” Rose swallowed. She stepped forward and hugged her brother. He stiffened but hugged her back. Maybe this wasn’t going to be as awkward as she thought.

********  
Aušra was asleep, for the moment; Jenny tinkered in her workshop; Winston was either watching over Aušra or with Jenny; Keisha was sleeping over in Aušra’s room with a promise of Jenny’s pancakes later.

And Rose was exhausted.

They finally settled the rest of the group Jackie and Mickey brought with them in the TARDIS. With…minimal fuss. At least no one threatened to shoot the aliens—a very real fear she still hadn’t quite let go. But the TARDIS separated their wing, including a small kitchen for them, and Rose knew they’d not find their way out of there unless the TARDIS wanted them to.

“Are you happy to see Jackie again?” the Doctor asked and pressed a kiss to her shoulder.

He slipped the thin robe a little farther off her shoulder, hands cool on her skin. Rose sighed and leaned into his touch. She closed her eyes and relaxed against him. The breeze from the flower fields of Laracopa brushed her skin like a caress and she let the peacefulness of the scene sooth her.

“Yeah, course.” She sighed and turned her cheek to rest against his chest. “I missed her, but…I never thought I’d see any of them again. I mean I know we searched, even for a signal to get through. But I never…”

“I know.” He kissed her temple, arms slipping around her shoulders to pull her tight to him. He held her left hand, long fingers playing with her wedding ring. “Change is the only constant.” He huffed a laugh.

“This change is good.” Rose paused. “But as much as I love traveling with you, and as changeable as that is, this is…”

“Big,” he agreed.

She heard the grimace in his voice, imagined it so clearly on his beloved face. Rose slipped her hands over his and held him as if the light, and simulated, Laracopian wind might tear them apart.

“For all the change we see,” the Doctor whispered, “there’s more beneath.”

Rose turned just enough to look up at him. “Did you just make that up?”

He offered her his lopsided grin, eyes soft. “Maybe.”

She snorted a laugh but felt a little lighter. Maybe not lighter, but not as conflicted. With their hands clasped and his bare chest resting against her back, she relaxed into him and opened their bond as fully as possible without using complete telepathy.

“There’s a lot to do—set up identities, housing, _jobs_.” She heard the shudder in the Doctor’s voice.

“They can’t go back to London,” Rose insisted. “Mum’s dead there and even a single sighting would set off everyone on the estate.”

“No,” he agreed. “Not London. I’ll talk to Alastair about it. Maybe UNIT can set something up.”

She nodded but didn’t move. Her thoughts whirled and raced round each other and frankly she didn’t know what to do. Or feel. But she was certain about one thing.

“I don’t want to stay.” She swallowed. “I mean, we’ll stay as long as Jenny needs, I know Francine already made plans with her to talk.”

Francine also agreed to help those who came with Jackie and Mickey to settle in here.

“Francine.” The Doctor hummed a soft sound, something between a laugh and a disbelieving grimace. “I never thought she’d accept—I mean I know she looks at you as another daughter and Jenny and Aušra as her grandchildren. But I never…”

“I know.” Rose lifted his hands to her lips and kissed the back of them in turn. “I don’t know—I mean it’s all so confusing. My mind keeps jumping. Where will we spend Christmas? Who will host it, Francine or Jackie? Will it even matter? Will everyone get along? And what about the other Martha?”

“One thing at a time, my hearts.” He turned her and pressed his forehead to hers. Cupped her face. “Come to bed.”

Rose let out a weak chuckle. “That’s your solution? Sleep?”

“No. I need to hold you. I want to make love to you.” He drew in a shuddering breath. “I almost lost you today, you and our family. Everyone.” He looked away, looked up like he did when he tried to get his emotions under control. Rose squeezed his wrists and waited until he looked at her again.

“You didn’t. Doctor.” She waited until he looked at her again. “ _You didn’t._ We stood together.”

“One day that might not be enough,” he began.

“Maybe not,” she agreed, and the words hurt. Oh, they hurt to say. She pushed them out anyway. “But we’ll have been together. And in this life, that’s all I ask. It’s all I want.”

“My hearts.”

The Doctor kissed her, a gentle kiss Rose felt clear through to her soul. She wound her arms around his shoulders, fingers in his hair and pressed her body to his. Her heart thudded in her chest, long beats that wound her need for her Doctor higher and higher.

“Much better idea than sleep,” she murmured against his mouth.

He swept her into his arms then, and she laughed. Rose pulled his mouth to hers and kissed him again, letting all her love pour into the kiss. The Doctor knelt on the bed and gently laid her down; he didn’t break the kiss but lay out next to her, pulling her close against him.

“I’m never going to leave you,” Rose promised. “We’ll stay for a bit here, but I don’t want to stop our lives.”

“Rose,” he breathed and kissed her again.

He rolled her onto her back and cupped her breast. Her fingers combed through his hair and he hummed around her nipple. The sound made her shiver, arch into his touch.

“I can’t live without you.” His mouth moved against her belly, fingers tugging her nipples. “I never have been able to.” He kissed her hip, her stretch marks, the sensitive skin of her inner thighs.

“You’re my world, my universe. I love you,” he breathed against her mouth, through their bond. “Nothing can change that. Ever.”

His mind slipped easily into hers, a comfort, a promise. The primal part of their souls connected as easily as their hands whenever they reached for the other. Rose whimpered, cried out, embraced him.

She whispered his name, the one he was given at birth only to renounce later. Whether she’d done so aloud or through their link, Rose didn’t know. Didn’t care. Arousal rushed through her, coiling tighter as his mouth brushed along her sex, his fingers teasing her wetness. It burned through their link and throbbed deep within her.

She broke with a shout, coming hard against his mouth, his fingers. He continued to touch her, mouth tasting her arousal, fingers thrusting far too shallowly for her liking. Built her up again until she cried out and ground into his touch.

Rose tugged his hair, grinned when he groaned her name. The sound vibrated across their link, straight to her sex and her breath caught.

“Doctor,” she moaned, begged. “Now. Now.”

He entered her, slowly slipping in her with short thrusts and long kisses. Rose tightened her legs around his waist, tilted her hips as he entered her. When he lay fully seated, she sighed. Her orgasm hovered just out of reach and yet Rose didn’t want to move. She didn’t want this moment to end.

“I love you, Rose,” he said and watched the knowledge, the truth of that statement shine brightly in her eyes. “This body, my last, my next. Forever.”

The Doctor moved then, long, slow thrusts that drew out her pleasure. Her fingers found her clit and she brushed it, teasing herself even as she held her husband closer. Closer. His fingers brushed her temples and though they no longer needed the touch, it flared through her, bright and intimate and them.

Rose came with a cry, body stiffening as her orgasm exploded through her. Her climax a rolling wave of need as she moved against the Doctor, harder and harder, her fingers pressing down on her clit.

“Rose. My life,” he said and thrust faster, pounding into her as he sought his own climax.

She shuddered as he did so. Her orgasm, tendrils of golden need, raced outward and she reached for him. Held him close. Closer. He came with a cry, head thrown back and so beautiful she wanted to see him like that forever.

Nerves still sparking, Rose held him close as he softened within her. She kissed her neck, his shoulder, tasted the faint tang of sweat on his skin, felt the slightly elevated heat of his body.

“I love you,” she whispered and tugged him enough to roll onto their sides. He slipped out of her and she sighed at the feel, the slight emptiness. “I love you.”

“My hearts,” he breathed and kissed her softly. “I’m so glad I met you.”


	18. Chapter 18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just one more thing… Or: A little wrap up to what happens afterward.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone who stuck with me! Thank you for all your comments and your continued reading. And thank you for taking this journey with me! This isn't the end-end, but it is the end of all major arcs. I can't believe that, it's been such a wonderful journey and I'm honored to have taken it with you.

“What?” Rose blinked awake, confused.

She hadn’t really needed to worry about midnight or 2 am feedings. The Doctor didn’t sleep, no more than an hour or so, and was all too happy to spend time with his wide-awake children in the middle of the night.

“Aušra.” The Doctor frowned, and slipped from their bed. Rose took a moment to admire his naked bum.

The baby (not really a baby any more, Rose supposed) hadn’t cried, hadn’t sent out her faint telepathic plea for one of them. But the door between their rooms chimed nonetheless. The Doctor tugged on lounge pants, slipped a t-shirt over his head and, moved toward the door connecting their rooms with the Aušra’s.

On the other side stood Keisha and Jenny who held Aušra. The three of them looked lost.

“What’s wrong?” Rose asked, tightening her robe. She raked her fingers through her hair, trying and no doubt failing to comb it into some semblance of order.

“You were gone.” Keisha looked wide-eyed and clung to Jenny’s hand as if she wished Jenny held her instead of—or with—Aušra.

“What?” Rose crouched down and hugged Keisha. “I didn’t go anywhere. Did you mean the TARDIS? No, darling, we’re still outside Grandma Francine’s. And Mummy and Daddy are down the hallway.”

Keisha shook her head and Jenny cleared her throat. Rose stood, Keisha in her arms and looked to Jenny.

“Keisha had a dream,” Jenny whispered, voice thick. “She dreamt you were gone. That you left the TARDIS and went with Grandma Jackie. Aušra picked up on it. It was…” Jenny stopped, shook her head. “You’re not leaving, are you Mum?”

“What?” Rose blinked. “Where would I go?”

“You’re mother’s not going anywhere,” the Doctor said firmly.

“Good.” Jenny stopped. “Um…yes. Good. That’s…”

“Come on.” Rose sighed and stepped back, gesturing for them to enter. She turned from the door somehow not at all surprised to see piles of blankets on the floor and enough pillows to fill a harem. Or what Rose imagined a harem looked like.

“We’ll all sleep here tonight.”

She looked to the Doctor, a smile tugging her mouth. This was so typical for them. She laughed at his expression, torn between outrage at being interrupted of a wonderful night of kissing and cuddling, and that softness he had around family.

Rose settled Aušra and Keisha close by and Jenny situated herself between them. They were all within arm’s reach. She debated asking Keisha if she wanted to sleep with her parents, but the little girl didn’t seem to mind the change in bed and looked half-asleep already.

Winston, of course, suddenly appeared and stretched as if he’d been there the entire time. He curled up by the three girls.

The Doctor, still grumbling, propped up several pillows and waited for her. Rose slipped into their en suite with her sleep shorts and shirt. She hurriedly changed and rejoined her family. 

“What did you mean, Keisha?” Rose asked, and kissed each girl goodnight. Then she stretched out beside the Doctor, head on his chest. His hearts beat steadily beneath her ear and lulled her back to sleep.

“You went back with your mummy.” Keisha yawned, apparently no longer afraid of whatever she dreamt about. “And you didn’t come back, ever.”

“Oh.” Rose swallowed around a dry throat. 

The Doctor’s arm tightened around her and pulled her even closer. “Go to sleep,” he said firmly. Rose was certain only she heard the tremor in his voice. “We have a lot to do in the morning.”

Rose looked up at him, the question floating silently between them. But he only shook his head, clearly at a loss as well.

“Keisha sees things through a child’s eyes,” he whispered as the TARDIS dimmed the lights. “She’s still innocent and sees things so differently than Jenny or I…I don’t think even Jenny sees all Keisha does. The alternates. What might’ve beens.” The Doctor shook his head. “Not sure why.”

“I’m never leaving you,” she whispered fiercely. Rose looked over at her family. “I’m not leaving any of you.”

The Doctor kissed her; heedless of anyone else, he kissed her and poured every bit of love and adoration he felt into that kiss. Rose returned it. Dug her fingertips into his neck and held him close.

When he pulled back, Rose knew it wasn’t enough. The fear still pulsed darkly between them, tense and so very real. But he kissed her gently, a mere press of his lips to hers, and urged her head back to his chest.

“Go back to sleep, Rose.”

“I love you,” she whispered and pressed a kiss to his chest.

“And I you, my hearts.”

********  
Rose told him of her dreams, those dreams she had, oh, before Aušra’s birth at least. The hard, angry look on Jackie’s face was so remnant of those nightmares, the Doctor almost asked if this were real or if, somehow, they dream-shared.

(Her mum stood before her—arms folded and glaring. Jackie was furious, on a level Rose had never seen, let alone experienced herself. _Oh, you’re alive? Couldn’t even be bothered to send a text across the hole in the universal walls to let me know?_

**Guilt.**

Jackie morphed into Mickey. Angry and hard and unlike Rose had ever seen him. _Are you even trying to stop the stars from going out? Or are you so lost in the Doctor you forgot the fate of all the universes?_

**Culpability.** )

“How long have you been gone?” Jackie demanded.

The Doctor opened his mouth to defend Rose from Jackie’s astonishment but hadn’t the chance. He saw it coming. He did. Jackie was fast, but she wasn’t that fast. He still didn’t understand what he’d done to deserve it.

The palm of her hand connected with his cheek. Rose gasped. Francine snickered. Jack prudently backed away.

“What was that for?” he demanded

“Mum!” Rose snapped. She took his hand and he felt her fight for calm. He was too stunned to offer her any support no matter how he wanted to.

“How old is she?” Jackie demanded. “How long were you gone?”

Francine snickered again. The Doctor had a very strong moment of déjà vu—Francine had reacted the same exact way. It was eerie. No, not déjà vu but déjà vécu. He already lived through this, thank you very much.

“Jenny wasn’t born the normal way,” Rose said slowly and clearly even through clenched teeth. “She was…well, created I suppose.”

“It was on Messaline,” Jenny said and stepped in.

The Doctor heard his daughter’s mental snicker as clearly as if she did it aloud. Traitor. But Jenny steered Jackie away from them and at least it gave him a chance.

“What did I do?” he whined. “It’s not my fault!”

“Ohh,” Rose cooed and kissed his cheek. “Poor Doctor.”

_“I’ll make it better later,”_ she promised. 

********  
It took a month for everyone to settle in. A solid month. Drove the Doctor mental it did. His breaking point came when he walked in on another argument between Rose and Jackie.

“Mum,” Rose sighed. “I told you. You _can’t_ go to London. What if someone sees you?”

“You visit London all the time,” Jackie snapped. “Visiting Francine.”

Rose pinched the bridge of her nose. He felt her anger simmering along her nerves, and how she tried to tamp it down. And the headache brewing, the pulse of it throbbing in time with her blood. The Doctor started to cross, to interrupt and intervene or something, when Rose tried again.

“Mum,” Rose said through clenched teeth, “living in London is a surefire way of exposing all of you. Not just you and Tony, but Mickey and Martha and everyone else who jumped over. You’re not the only one who’s supposed to be…who isn’t here in this universe or who has a double.”

“I’m not living in bloody Cardiff,” Jackie snapped. “Not that you’d care, over here, living the high life with the Doctor and swanning off around the universe. Getting married, having a family while we were fighting for our lives over there! Not like you’re going to stick around now, is it? Off in your space machine again.”

Rose stilled. Her breath caught and her entire body just…stilled. The Doctor crossed the room, then, and touched her arm. She jerked, looking from Jackie to him as if she never saw either of them before. Slowly, as if the walls surrounding her anger fell one piece at a time, she looked back to her mother.

“Is that what you think?” Rose asked, voice low and even. “You think I didn’t wonder about you every day? Worry about you? You think once I jumped here I forgot all about you?”

“Rose.”

Rose ignored her. She ignored him, too, but he felt the anger and betrayal at her mum’s words. He slipped his hand up her arm, squeezed her shoulder. The Doctor didn’t have any words of comfort for her, could think of nothing even his impressive gob might say.

“I tried,” Rose spat, low and hurt. “I tried to contact you but my mobile died after the jump. Shorted out and never reconnected. We scanned, every minute of every day we scanned for a hole between universes. Do you think I didn’t look? Do you think the Doctor didn’t? Do you think we forgot about you?”

Jackie made a helpless sound, but the Doctor didn’t look away from his wife. Tried to send her all the love and calm he wanted her to have, tried to bury his own anger at Jackie for her careless words. Her thoughtless actions.

For the solid month of winging and complaining and selfishness.

“What did you want me to do, Mum? Sit on the cold New York ground where I jumped through and call you every minute I could until we finally got through? Not live my life? Sit and stare into nothing until somehow a signal came through?”

“Rose.” Jackie tried again. “I—I—I know you…I didn’t mean it like that.”

“No?” Rose snorted, a harsh, bitter sound. “Sure sounded like that. Sounded like it every time you said something similar for the last month. Sounded like you wanted me to do just that, wait for a way to contact you and not _live_. Wanted me to wait and wait and not do anything with my life.”

The Doctor slipped his hand into hers and held tight.

“You can argue all you like, Mum,” Rose snapped. “But you’re living in Cardiff.”

With that she squeezed his hand and turned sharply on her heel. The Doctor didn’t try to stop her.

“Jackie.” He slowly turned from the door Rose just stalked through and looked at his mother-in-law. He tried not to shudder.

She met his gaze for a bare moment, merely a heartbeat, then it slid away, stared out the safe house windows UNIT set up for them. The flats were by the UNIT spa Rose, Donna, and Shonara put together, far enough from prying eyes yet close enough to the rest of them for the reunion Rose craved.

Right now Tony was playing in the yard with Shaun, Keisha, Jenny, and Wilf. Clive watched Aušra Susan and Francine set up several meetings with the survivors to help them acclimate into this world. The group was set to move in the next couple of days. To Cardiff and Torchwood Three out there where Mickey and Martha promised to monitor the rift and the group could settle in far from anyone who might know them here.

Or their doubles here.

“I know you’re hurt.” He said each word clearly and slowly, but his meaning remained intent. He watched Jackie flinch and didn’t care. Well, he did, but Jackie was not his main concern. Rose was and always would be. “And I know you’re grieving. And scared and lost and you have to start fresh. Again. But you have no idea what Rose went trough when she jumped back.”

He waited but she didn’t look at him again. “We scanned; we tried to make her Dimension Hopper work again, and nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch. And for me to say that is something.”

Her gaze met his defiantly for a moment but he wasn’t swayed. “Up until the Earth disappeared we scanned. Tried to send a message through. There wasn’t a minute of any day since Rose came back that the TARDIS didn’t look for a way to contact you again.”

“I know.” Jackie sighed and nodded. She sank into a chair and looked forlorn, sad and afraid and contrite. “I don’t know why I said those things.”

He didn’t forgive her, wasn’t his place. Instead he gave her a sharp nod. “Then you think on it, and when you’re ready to talk like a grownup and apologize to Rose, I’m sure she’ll listen. You’re her mum and she loves you.”

He met Jackie’s gaze once more then left. Rose hadn’t gone far, she leaned against the building of flats, arms crossed, staring at the ground. She stood in the shadows of the complex, just out of sight of everyone.

“Jackie didn’t mean it.”

Rose nodded and sighed. But she looked up at him, face open and hurt and yet somehow still defiant. “I know. But she’s right.”

The Doctor frowned. “How so?” He leaned against the wall and drew her to him, held her close. “We did try to find her, the TARDIS constantly scanned for an opening.”

“Not that.” Rose leaned her head against his chest and wrapped her arms around his waist. “We’re not staying. I don’t want to stay. Not here, not in Cardiff, nowhere on Earth.”

His hands tightened on her shoulders. After a long minute where he tried to remember how to speak, he drew back. “What do you mean?”

She brushed her fingers along his sideburns and merely smiled. “Did you think now that Mum and Tony were here I’d want to stay?”

He didn’t say anything. He thought that, yes. Not really, not concretely, but the thought had crossed his mind. Repeatedly.

“Doctor.” Rose shook her head and drew back slightly. He scrambled to keep her close, to feel her body against his and her mind brushing along his.

“I didn’t think it, think it,” he hedged. “Just thought…maybe you…well, that you’d want to stay. For a bit. Longer, that is. Stay here for a bit longer.”

She made a face, a dismissive frowning scowl. “My life’s not here. _Our_ life isn’t here. Hasn’t been in a long, long time if it ever was.”

“So.” He cleared his throat. “We’re leaving again? Traveling?” Rose nodded and he released a pent-up breath. “Oh thank God. I mean if you wanted to stay longer, of course we could, but--”

She giggled and returned her head to his chest. “Doctor.” He stopped and laid his cheek atop her head. “I want you to take me somewhere…fantastic.”

“Anything you wish, my hearts.”

********  
They didn’t leave right away. Again. Instead they packed up Jackie and Tony and helped them move to Cardiff and settle in. Jenny wasn’t quite ready to leave yet, either, and Rose didn’t want to leave her mum so soon.

Except she did.

They ended up jumping between Francine’s gardens and Cardiff every other day. It drove her barmy.

Today she sat under the sun in their gardens. Originally she wanted to do a little planting, add some more color to the already bursting-with-color landscape. She dug exactly half a trench and gave up. Now, leaning against a lounge chair, head tilted back to the sun, eyes closed, Rose let her thoughts race round and round themselves.

“Thought I’d find you here,” Martha said.

Opening her eyes, she smiled at her best friend and patted the ground next to her. Martha, dressed in a pretty red sundress and sandals, made herself comfortable. They sat in silence for a while, and Rose felt some of the tension leave her. The breeze brushed her bare arms and she opened herself fully to her bond with the Doctor.

He worked on the TARDIS, showing Jenny the various repairs he made and trying to teach Aušra as well. Rose smiled and opened her eyes. Met Martha’s gaze.

“You’re leaving,” she whispered.

“Staying in London,” Martha corrected then sighed. “Yeah. I’m heading up the medical division of UNIT now, after…”

After the Valiant crashed and so many lives were lost including the majority of the New York base. After the argument, both internal with UNIT and with the Doctor over the Osterhagen Key. After the Other Martha and Mickey’s arrival.

Rose cleared her throat. “I’ll miss you, Martha,” she whispered.

Martha leaned her head on Rose’s shoulder. “Don’t think this means you’re not coming back,” she warned. “I better see you at least once a month.”

Chuckling, Rose agreed. “You’ll make a brilliant Head of Medical.” She paused. “What about Jack?”

“He’s staying as well,” Martha confirmed then hesitated. “And I’m staying with him.”

“You sure?” Rose pulled back and Martha looked at her. “This is what you want? He’s who you want?”

Martha nodded. “I’m sure. The Dalek invasion only confirmed it. I don’t know what we’ll do or what’ll happen in the future, but right now I want him.”

“Good.” Rose grinned. “I’m glad.”

“How’s Jenny?”

“Better, I think.” Rose looked out at her gardens, not really seeing them. “She spent a lot of nights with Wilf on his hill looking at the stars. And Francine says she’s working through.” She swallowed hard. “I really want her to talk to me. Or the Doctor.”

“She will.” Martha leaned her head back against the chair. “But you’ve been busy, Jackie and Tony, reconnecting with Mickey and…” she cleared her throat. Neither mentioned the Second Martha and the what-if possibilities of that union. “She will. She’s traveling with you still, yeah?”

“Yeah. Doesn’t like to leave us for too long.” Rose sighed. “We don’t like leaving her, either.”

Martha laughed. “That’ll change soon. I remember I couldn’t wait to leave the house. I didn’t care how many people I had to live with, it wasn’t being at home.”

“Same here. Moved out with a loser then had to move back in. Hardest thing I ever did, moving back in with Mum.”

They sat in silence for a while longer. Rose savored the quiet, the friendship between her and Martha. This was a new chapter in both their lives. She didn’t quite know how to handle it or what to do, but she embraced it.

“Knew I’d find you two here,” Donna said and crossed the gardens.

She carefully kept to the flagstone path but didn’t look at the colorful flowers as she normally did. With a sigh, she sat on the ground, grimacing slightly at the dirt not clinging to her tan trousers.

“I’m staying in London,” Martha said without preamble. “Working as Head of Medical with UNIT.”

Donna nodded and grinned. “You’ll make a great doctor, Doctor.”

They giggled but Rose braced herself. The three of them often sat here, well on the lounge chairs, and talked. Today, she had a feeling it was one of their last times. Her heart thudded painfully and yet she knew it was time. Knew it was inevitable, she supposed.

But this wasn’t goodbye. Not really.

“I’m staying, too,” Donna whispered. “Heading up the spa here. And—well, Shaun…”

“He’s a great guy, Donna,” Rose said and reached for her friend’s hand. “And he loves you.”

“I…” Donna paused. “I love him, too. Going to see if we can work things out, maybe…”

“Maybe make a go of it?” Martha asked, head still resting on Rose’s shoulder.

“Maybe,” Donna agreed, voice thick. She cleared her throat and asked, “You and Jack?”

“Same.”

Donna nodded but none of them said anything for a long while. Rose wanted to say how much she’d miss them. Oh, she’d see them still and talk to them on a regular basis, but it wasn’t the same as traveling together.

But she didn’t want to make them feel bad. Didn’t want to make this about her when it was their choice. 

“You staying for dinner?” Rose asked into the silence. “The Doctor’s cooking.”

“Wouldn’t miss it,” Donna said softly. “I’ll bring Shaun.”

Martha hummed but didn’t move. “Course I am. Wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

********  
“Mum, we’ll be back soon. Promise.” Rose hugged Jackie and the Doctor tried not to fidget.

Aušra Susan and Jenny waited beside him, calm yet reluctant. He was anything but. He wanted gone. Now. They stayed on Earth for weeks and weeks, _forever_ , and he needed to move.

Even if it was to spend weeks in the Vortex making love to Rose.

Not that they hadn’t in the two months since Jackie’s arrival. But he was used to spending far more time with his wife than he had been.

The bright warmth of her love flowed over him and when he looked up again, the Doctor saw her smile, the grin with her tongue teasing the corner of her mouth. He cleared his throat and stood resolutely. Clearly he didn’t fool her.

“Oh, I’m going to miss you,” Jackie said and hugged Rose again.

“And I’ll miss you and Tony. But you two need more time to settle in.” Rose pulled back. “And please, _please_ keep your video conference appointments with Francine.”

Jackie scowled but nodded. She was still jealous over the relationship Rose and he had with Francine, but equally protective over the relationship she had with Mickey and Martha. The dynamics all changed but the Doctor thought it still worked. Or would.

Actually, he shuddered to think what might happen once Jackie and Francine started getting on.

“We’ll see you soon. Promise.”

Jackie hugged everyone one last time (for the fifth time)—including him. The Doctor tried not to cringe.

They already said their goodbyes to everyone else in London; Donna threatened him with castration if he didn’t return as promised. Little Keisha wanted to travel with them but Jenny talked her out of it. Well… _Wilf_ convinced her that waiting wasn’t the problem, it gave her time to make a list of all the places she wanted to see.

Martha and Jack promised to keep in touch and work with Torchwood Three to bring it back on track. To keep the future in line with what needed to happen. Torchwood played a significant role in the future, and despite the Doctor’s absolute loathing of it, he couldn’t change that.

But he could make it better.

“Love you, Mum,” Rose said and sniffled.

And then they entered the TARDIS. He breathed a sigh of relief. Home. They were home.

Jenny strapped Aušra into her seat and took her position by the controls. He watched Rose brush her lips over the baby’s head and looked to Jenny. She squeezed their eldest’s hand as well.

“Where to?” he asked, a part of him excited to have his family all to himself. A part of him saddened, as always, to leave the rest of his family behind.

“Anywhere.” Rose smiled. She circled the console until she reached him and tangled her fingers in his hair. He settled his hands on her hips and pressed his forehead to hers, simply breathing her in.

“Take us anywhere.”


End file.
